No Refunds
by Kamie-Chan
Summary: Maka has moved into a new apartment away from her womanizing father. However, to avoid her living room being compared to a dull library she decides to buy something interesting to spice it up. You get what you pay for...and then some. AU
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hello everyone! I just want to let you all know that this is my first time writing..well any type of literature, but I shall try not to be horrible at it. I ask any of you; if you do see any errors feel free to message me. I'm not the type to threaten for reviews and whatnot, but feedback in the form of a review would be greatly appreciated.

Just in case… to separate the talking and thoughts in case you are confused.

"Talking."

'Thinking.'

**Disclaimer:** This will be the first and last time on this story that I state that I do not own Soul Eater in any shape or form and is copyrighted to its respected creator. Now that's out of the way let's get this story started….

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><p><strong>No Refunds<strong>

**Chapter One**

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><p>It was a cool and crisp day of autumn. The sun was closer to the horizon, it basked the city in orange and red hues. It seemed like the perfect afternoon to go for a stroll in the park and walk through the foliage of fallen leaves, or maybe even go to an early dinner in a cosy restaurant. It would have been a perfect day not to go to waste.<p>

However a certain ash-blonde girl failed to notice this day as she was too busy carrying numerous cardboard boxes that held her dearest possessions, as she ventured up the apartment complex stairs to reach her apartment. Maka grunted in determination as she cleared the last few steps heading towards the open door to her new apartment, her arms twitched in anticipation of letting the extremely heavy box drop to the floor at any given moment.

As soon as she took a couple of paces inside her new adobe she was in the living room, with her last ounce of willpower she placed the books gently next to the other varied cardboard boxes that they had placed in the corner so they were out of the way. A whole day's work of moving and lifting half a house worth of items to her new abode. She was glad that she had assistance so the boxes, but god help them if they tripped over and damaged something…

-THUD-

As if on cue…

Maka whipped her head towards the open door at lightning speed, her two pigtails giving her slight whiplash as she stalked outside towards the stairs, narrowed green eyes in apprehension. She heard a few muttered curses she waited a few moments before the other person appeared, she crossed her arms and scowled.

"That thud back there had better not have been a box dropping and damaging something Black Star, don't make me get one of my books!" The girl warned, staring down at her childhood friend. The male teenager scoffed as he rolled his ebony eyes at her, used to her threats.

"The great me did not damage anything Maka! If you must know I fell up the stairs but your box is safe and sound." He stated while he walked up the last few steps and past her, she trailed behind him as they both re-entered her apartment. She glanced at the box in his hands and assessed it for any visible signs of damage to warrant her to Maka-Chop him into next century.

_'He's safe for now.'_ She thought to herself in relief.

Black Star placed the box down with a slight grunt before he stood up and stretched, once he heard a satisfying crack he turned towards her.

"So Maka is this all your crap? The godly me needs his rest too ya know?" Black Star complained as he rubbed his hands through his electric blue hair. She sent him a glare.

"It's not 'crap' and yeah, that was the last box thank god. Now all I have to do is start unpacking." Maka walked towards the boxes and picked up one of the smaller boxes as she headed to the built in bookcase that was beside the fireplace in her living room. Setting it down on the floor she opened up the tabs to reveal a box full of books. She grinned down in sudden excitement, as if reunited with long lost friends. She grabbed a handful of books and began to place them on the shelf. Black Star scoffed in the background at his nerdy best friend and her strange obsessive love for literature.

"Figures the first thing you unpack are books, not like you need to unpack clothes or kitchen stuff…" He trailed off when she pinned him with another glare. Black Star slinked back over to the boxes to help her unpack.

It was an unwise move to make fun of Maka, especially if there was a book in her hands. Her unpacking a box full of them and he was asking for a death wish.

Maka quickly finished unpacking the first box and retrieved another, content with Black Star being quiet and working diligently. For once. In the silence she revels in the feel of finally moving out, away from her disgusting pig that is her father. Her father, Spirit, worked in a high rise in the middle of the city, a fairly large corporation called Grigori. Maka recalls there once was a time a few months ago that she thought that he had finally stop his lecherous, womanizing ways and finally start working and living modestly. That was until she came home one night to hear that he had mixed work and personal life together, by seeing his secretary. That was the last straw for Maka. After one of her biggest Maka-Chop's to his cranium on record, she yelled that she was moving and she wanted nothing more to do with him. Spirit cried and begged for his 'Little Angel' to not leave him, to not have anything to do with him like her mother had done all those years ago. Maka ignored his pleas that an eighteen year old girl living by herself was dangerous if she moved to a different city. He even went to drastic measures and compromised that if she at least stays within the city he would pay her rent and other expenses.

Maka grimaced to herself, now slightly ashamed that she agreed to that proposition, begrudgingly of course.

_'Though, if I was doing this all by myself I would be strapped for cash. Especially since I'm starting college in a week.'_ A smile crept onto her face as she was extremely happy at the thought of new life in college. She chose this apartment because it was the most affordable and that it was only a twenty minute walk from her college, so no money needed to be wasted on buses or cars, as she did not have her own transport. It was a decent apartment for the price as well. The apartment was moderately sized with two bedrooms, one of which she will use for her study, and the living room had built in bookcases and a small fireplace.

_'I wonder if it will be cold come winter time.'_ She was interrupted from her thoughts when she saw a tan and muscled arm waving in front of her eyes. She blinked a few times before her eyes shifted from the appendage to Black Star's face. Maka raised an eyebrow in question.

"While you were off in your own little world the great me unpacked thirteen boxes! All your books are unpacked and I tossed your clothes and bed stuff in the first bedroom. However it's getting late and this god needs food and sleep! And no offense…but your living room now looks like a boring library! Catchya Laters Maka-Baka!" He grinned and motioned a two finger salute to her before dashing out of the apartment, shutting the door behind him. She frowned at his nickname but could still hear his laugh echo in the outside hallway.

Maka dismissed the temptation to chase after him with promises of harm. Instead she slowly rose up from her spot on the floor to stretch, her arms and back feeling extremely stiff until she hears a satisfying crack; it felt like they had been unpacking for hours. She glanced at her phone to reaffirm that yes, it was now 8.46pm. Surveying the room she was quite pleased that the living room was fully unpacked, neat and tidy. Black Star's words came back to her, and after a very long moment she hated to admit it…but he was actually right. Huffing at the notion that she was boring Maka thought over ways to fix that perception. Well there was no way in hell she would ever get rid of her beloved books.

Glancing towards the fireplace she noticed the empty shelf above it and she frowned slightly. Her hand glided over the polished wood of the shelf in contemplation.

_'My house will not be compared to a 'boring library!'_ Libraries are not boring! I'll show Black Star I can have something other than books. But what should I put here? It's the only place in this room to put something up. An ornament of some sort? Something not dull…the exact opposite of dull…sharp….'She gasped as the idea clicked into her mind.

_'I'll buy an ornamental weapon!'_

-x- TBC –x-

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><p>AN: Feedback would be greatly appreciated!

See you in the next chapter!

-KC


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Hello Again! It's time for another chapter! And before I start I would like to say thank you to those who have reviewed and followed this story! Your comments made me happy! I hope you can continue to enjoy this story! As I said before feel free to review/leave feedback for this story. I'm here to learn! And yea…Black Star isn't AS obnoxious (all the time) but I'll try not to make him too OOC.

Oh and I forgot to mention that this is AU (alternate Universe) some things may be similar but yea. Hope you don't mind! And since you guys have given me a warm reception so far…I'm going to make this chapter longer :D

Without further ado…

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><p>Chapter Two<p>

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><p>After three more days of unpacking the last of the remaining boxes, Maka was glad to finally have her apartment fully furnished, down to the littlest knick-knack. It was Monday and she had just started her classes to her delight. Her professor was a strange one though, an overly pale man named Franken Stein who wore the typical lab coat. His skin had scars from stitches marred all over his body.<p>

"An experiment gone wrong" He stated after one of the students questioned about it.

"How did it go wrong if you don't mind me asking?" the same student questioned.

"He woke up and realised what I was doing." He finished with a smirk; he looked at Maka while he stated this. Apparently Stein knew her father from back when they shared a dorm together in college, they had partied numerous times during their time on the campus. That little tid bit of information put him in her bad books but as a respected professor she let that matter slide. At the end of class she was slightly disappointed that they weren't assigned any reading or homework to do, heading home with a sigh.

_'Maybe tomorrow.' _She thought hopefully.

Maka was now seated on her couch with an open magazine in her lap; the pen in her hand was tapping against the page while she stared at the shelf on top of the fireplace that was still bare for the time being while she figured out what type of ornamental weapon she would want in the first place.

_'Well I could be like the average person and buy the three set of samurai swords.'_ She shook her head at the thought, thinking that was way too overused. _'Some type of medieval weapon? No…that seems tacky.' _She tapped her pen quicker in agitation; maybe she needed a second opinion on this.

A few moments later she heard loud repetitive knocks on her door followed by a shout of her name. She sighed placing the magazine down and stood up to open the door for Black Star. Maka narrowly dodged a fist aiming for her shoulder as Black Star slowly realised the door was open, he gave her a grin before walking in and dropped into the couch like it was his own home. It was sad to say she was used to her best friend being like this, they'd known each other since they were seven. Even though he was loud, rude and overly obsessed with how great he was, he always stood up for her. Even through the time when her mother and papa divorced he always stuck by her. She was grateful for that at least, nothing would change that…

Unless he placed his dirty chucks on top of her coffee table.

She hits him over the head with the magazine she had previously that had been rolled up quickly to use as a makeshift weapon. Unfortunately for her it did not faze him with how light it was, it didn't even put a dent in his crazy spiky locks! She glared at the magazine then to his head.

Next time it will be her college textbook.

She sat down beside him on the couch and pushed his shoes off the coffee table for him to get the message. He leans back and places his arms on the back of the couch and glances around the room.

"You know Maka…this place still looks like a library…" Black Star started. It was then that Maka remembered she wanted a second opinion of the ornamental weapon idea. And who better than Black Star? Vaguely remembering he used to boast about being a ninja from a ruthless clan. This was back when they were eight though.

Kids and their stories.

"I know….that's why I need your opinion on something." Maka began, pointing her finger towards the still empty shelf. "I was thinking of buying an ornamental weapon but not like the samurai sword things. I want it to be cool." Turning her head to look at him he suddenly sat up with an interested gleam in his eyes. Figures.

"Hell yea that's a great idea! What type of weapon were you thinking of getting?" Black Star asked. She opened her mouth to reply until he interrupted her, holding up a hand with a smirk.

"Wait don't tell me! A butterknife! It's perfect! Dull and flat like yo-"

"MAKA-CHOP!"

Maka interrupted his taunt when she imbedded her textbook into the back of his skull, the force of her hit made his head smash down into her coffee table. She grinned in victory at the double-hit combo. After a low whine of pain escaped from his mouth he slowly sat back up, but scooted as far as he could on the couch away from Maka.

"No, not a stupid butterknife." She said with a scoff. "I want something interesting and cool. Like…one of a kind sort of deal. The problem is I have no idea where the heck to look. Is there a type a store that specialises in selling them?" Maka questioned. Black Star would know this area better than her, since he actually lives a few blocks from her, another reason she didn't mind living in this area. She watched as he furrowed his eyebrows in thought before he brightened up and snapped his fingers.

"I vaguely remember an antique store on way to the gym. I think it was called something like…DWMA? I can't remember the full name but it's on Hook Avenue. You know we could check it out now if you want, it's not even three. The godly me will find the place in record time!" He declared with a grin as he grabbed her arm and stood, pulling her up with him.

"Well, I have no homework to do so sure." Maka said with a shrug, grabbing her wallet and purse before shutting her apartment door behind them walking towards 'DWMA.'

Half an hour later and a few wrong turns but Black Star insisted they were on the right street, they managed to find the small dark store hidden amongst a café and a florist. DWMA was abbreviated for Demon Weapon Masterful Antiques.

'_What a corny name, no wonder people only call it DWMA._' Maka thought with a grimace.

As they opened the door to the establishment a small bell above the door jingled, alerting the dark skinned man at the counter of customers. The man was quite tall in appearance; his hair was dreadlocked and held away from his face by a white headband. He looked at them with a warning glance.

"Please be careful when in this store customers. All breakages will be accounted for as well as further consequences 'coz that's the type of man I am." Stating matter-of-factly, as if he says that last part frequently. After promising him no harm will come to the store she spared a glance around and noticed that he really did have an impressive range of weapons. The walls were packed with a wide variety of long and short, sharp and pointy types. She would definitely find something in this store. While Maka peruses through his weapons she offhandedly realises it's now quiet.

Too quiet.

Glancing around it seemed like he disappeared, she quickly ventured further into the store to find Black Star, praying that he hasn't done something. Turning around the corridor she found him in a larger room holding something in his hands. Black Star noticed her and held up what appeared to be a chain scythe triumphantly, a large grin on his face.

"Hey Maka look at this godly weapon! It's perfect for someone as great as me! Watch!" He shouted excitedly and to her uttermost horror he started to flail the chain scythe erratically in the room. It looked like he was practicing an imaginary battle as he pretended to attack with the scythe part and swing the chain in the other hand. Maka held back a shriek when he started to knock over weapons off their stands, clattering loudly on the tiled floor. Black Star seemed to be too far off into his own little world as he continued to bring more items down onto the floor. She glanced to the door in fear, there was no way the store keeper did not hear this commotion.

"Black Star you idiot! Stop what you're doing!" Maka seethed in a hushed voice. He ignored her, his eyes now sparking as he started making over exaggerated battle movements.

"Black Star Wave!" Black Star shouted as he threw the scythe part into the air then started to swing the chain, looking like a demon cowboy with a lasso. Maka ducked under one of the tables quickly. The scythe part suddenly got lodged onto another weapon that was mounted high on the wall. Black Star frowned as he tugged the chain, the weapon did not move from its position. Grumbling that the weapon was stuck he looked up at it in dismay, never noticing Maka fuming and stalking towards him holding up her hand.

"MAKA-CHOP!" Maka screeched as she hit him as hard as she could, given she didn't have a book. Black Star was sent sprawling to the ground, the force of her hit made him tug extremely hard at the chain scythe, successfully dislodging it from the other weapon.

Both of those weapons now fell down and stabbed the floor on either side of Black Star's head.

"Black Star you are to help pick up all these weapons and return them to their spots this instant! If that store keeper comes in here you will be the one paying for any that are damaged!" Maka threatened as she quickly bent down to quickly fix the mess Black Star made. He recovered from his position on the floor and heeded Maka's threat, picking up the larger and heavier weapons.

After most of the weapons were returned to their rightful places she glanced at the weapons that were still embedded into the floor. Her eyes briefly glanced at the weapon Black Star was playing with before her eyes flickered onto the other weapon.

A scythe.

It's the first time that she had ever seen a scythe in person. The handle to it was huge, probably the length of her body, since she was short. However the entire length of the handle was covered in yellow wrapping, strange black symbols written all over it. The blade was huge, zigzagged the whole length of it in red and black. What stuck out mostly to her is the eye shaped design on the part combining the blade and the scythe together. The eye was blood red, Maka walked closer to it in interest. She raised her hand to touch the handle.

-ZAP-

Maka snatched her hand back faster than lightning with a surprised yelp.

_'What the heck was that!'_ She thought in wonder as she stared at her hand that just touched the handle. Her hand didn't appear to be singed, maybe it was just a static shock? Bracing herself she attempted to touch the handle again. This time she didn't get zapped however she could not deny that she can feel a surge of warmth in her hand. Feeling strange at first but after she got used to the warmth she felt content.

Maka decided that this was the weapon she would be buying. Though she was curious as to why there was the paper with weird writing on it, she lifted a hand to the top part of it and gently tried to pry it from the blade.

"Don't touch the weapons unless you are paying for them." A deep voice startled her out of her musings as both of the teens turned to find the store clerk at the doorway, his eyes trained on her hands. She quickly mutters an apology before lifting up the scythe in her hands.

"Excuse me sir-" She began.

"The name's Sid" The store clerk interrupted.

"-okay Sid…I am actually interested in buying this scythe. It feels…very unusual. Where did it come from?" She asked. Sid scratched his chin in thought before he gave her an answer.

"That scythe and the chain scythe were a few that I had found three years back in a place in Nevada. I think the place was Death City, the entire place was deserted. There was this massive fortress that was in the centre of the city and I explored it since I used to be an explorer, which was the type of man I was. Was pretty strange though to leave a heap of weapons lying around but hey…waste not, want not am I right?" He finished with a shrug.

"Oi Sid, I wanna buy this godly weapon, let's head to the cash register shall we? Gods get served first before commoners!" Black Star said, walking up to Sid holding up the chain scythe with a grin before striding towards the front of the store with Maka and Sid following closely behind.

As all three of them approached the counter Black Star was already fishing out his wallet from his jacket, Maka also pulled her wallet out of her purse.

"Now I'm going to warn you guys…Don't play around with these alright? You might injure yourselves…" Sid let the sentence hang in the air as he pinned Black Star with an accusatory glare and then resumed serving them. Sid checked the tag of the chain scythe and raised an eyebrow.

"That's strange…this tag was on a large shruiken before…Maybe I'm forgetful in my old age. Anyway young man the price of that weapon is $100-"

"$200! Here ya go!" Black Star spoke over the last part of Sid as he slammed down four fifty dollar bills with a wicked grin donning his features. There was a brief pause when Sid's eyes drifted towards Maka to see if she would correct her friend's payment but all she did was shrug.

'_What an idiot.'_They both thought simultaneously.

After wrapping up the weapon the transaction was completed while Black Star was talking animatedly about all the great things he planned to do. Sid tells Maka the scythe is $150 but since she was a nice customer she could have it for eighty dollars which she more than gladly accepted. He wrapped the handle of the scythe before noticing he ran out of wrapping paper.

"Hold on, I need to get more wrapping paper from the store room, be right back." Sid excused himself to retrieve the paper while Black Star was posing with his new weapon. Maka rolled her eyes at his silliness. Black Star turned and pointed the chain scythe at her.

"Maka! The great me requires your books for target practice! Their sacrifice will only improve my impeccable godly skill! I shall surpass the gods with this weapon!" He declared Before spinning around on his feet running out the door.

"Oh no you don't! I will Maka-Chop you into hell if you even try it!" Maka shrieked in overwhelming outrage, she quickly grabbed the scythe from the counter and sprinted after Black Star, still threatening him with promises of death.

"Oh guys before you go... I forgot to mention that apparently the weapons from Death City are cursed…." Sid left the rest of his words die on his throat as he noticed the now empty store.

-x- TBC –x-

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><p>AN: Decent word length for you guys! Sorry that this one seemed to drag on. I tend to get carried away with settings. But hey it's the start of the story! I'll try to not to that so much in later chapters (if I get that far lol). Feel free to review if you enjoyed this chapter or want to give me your feedback.

See you in the next chapter!

-KC


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Hello again everyone! I sure was surprised when I checked my email to find quite a few people are now following this story. :D I feel so giddy! And thank you reviewers! The feedback is wonderful!

I don't know if I will be able to write up chapters so quickly (since I am still an absolute newbie when it comes to writing, I'm more of an art person really) but I feel the positive encouragement from you guys so I'll try my best!

Oh and I hope the flashback in this chapter is a bit long…I was going to use the segment in the last chapter but I think it was best to stop that chapter at where I left it. I hope you don't mind, if you do just tell me in the reviews or something and I'll shorten it.

So without further ado…

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><p>Chapter Three<p>

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><p>Maka was seated at Deathbucks café that was located on her college campus, a contemplating look on her face as she absently stirred a spoon into her lukewarm coffee. She visited the coffee shop after her classes which ended at four today. Mulling over the last twenty-four hours she could not deny that last night when she got home with the scythe and this morning that things had been slightly…weird.<p>

-Flashback –

"Yosh! Time to destroy your books Ma-" A book was embedded into Black Star's head before he could even reach for the doorknob of her apartment while Maka was still a few meters behind him. One hand still holding her new purchase, the opposite and now empty hand had held her history textbook.

Maka marched up up to Black Star that was still sprawled out on the ground groaning in pain. She bent down to pick up her textbook with an accomplished grin.

"Thank god I have good aim. I should make Maka-Throw my new secret weapon." She said calmly with a grin. Black Star slowly scrambled back to his feet, picking up his new weapon that he dropped, giving his best friend a glare before he grimaced.

"Urgh Maka! Seriously I think you destroyed my brain cells this time." Black Star groaned as he raised his empty hand to feel around his scalp, searching for a nasty bump. Maka scoffed.

"What brain cells?" She joked.

A sudden look of offense graced his features before frowning; he opened his mouth to retaliate until held up her textbook in warning to which he threw up his hands in surrender with a grumble.

"You deserved that hit Black Star! You are NOT to destroy any of my beloved books with that weapon of yours." She warned, glaring at him to give up on the notion.

"Fine! I shall practice in my godly living room! Night Maka-Baka!" He shouted as he turned, jumping onto the railing in the open hallway before leaping off it and onto someone's car, which the alarm went off. Her eyes widened disbelief. She heard him yell a "Yahoo!" before she quickly scurried into her apartment, slamming the door before the neighbors could accuse of her associating with idiots.

Walking into the living room Maka dropped her book bag on the couch then turned to stand in front of her fireplace with the scythe now in both of her hands. One hand moved to unwrap the paper Sid used on the handle. The scythe still feels warm in her hands as she places it on the shelf above the fireplace. Finally completing her living room's decoration she steps back for a moment to admire it.

_'That scythe looks perfect! It's like a centerpiece…' _She thought cheerfully to herself with a feeling of accomplishment. And who knows, it might even deter her Papa from visiting if she threatened him with it. She smirked at the thought before heading to her kitchen to prepare dinner.

After a small meal she returned to the living room to pick a book out to do some light reading in bed. Maka spots the wrapping paper she left scattered near the fire place and slowly walks over.

"Gosh I'm messy." She mutters to herself. When she bends down to pick them up she hears a noise above her. Curiously she glances up then quickly stumbles back with a startled cry, just narrowly avoiding the scythe impaling her. Instead the scythe was now embedded into one of the floor boards. She stared in shock at the weapon, taking a few breaths to calm her nerves, placing a hand over her heart.

"Holy crap that was close! Scared the hell out of me.!" She picks herself off the floor and warily steps closer to touch the scythe, feeling the spark again. That feeling always seemed to confuse her.

"Is it my imagination that it sparks or tingles when I hold it? Probably is. I sure know how to pick strange weapons." Maka mused to herself, gripping the scythe's handle and began to try dislodging it from the floor. The scythe was wedged quite stubbornly, taking quite a bit of effort, and what felt like ages with a lot of grunting she finally got the weapon out of the floor. Maka grinned in victory, returning the scythe to its place on the shelf. Maka glanced at the scythe one more time.

"Now stay, no more trying to kill me." She giggled to herself before she yawned. Thinking it was a good time to head to bed she picked up one of her poetry books from her shelf, proceeding to her bedroom for the night.

The next morning she woke up in a rush to get to class, she chastises herself that she read the book until 3AM. While she quickly got dressed at lightning speed she snatched up her textbooks before stuffing them into her book bag, flinging the bag over her shoulder she runs through the living room to the door. While running past the fireplace however she suddenly tripped, with a startled yelp she fell to the ground. Maka muttered a few curses before looking towards the source of her downfall. The scythe had fallen once again without her notice, it now lay innocently on the floor, she gives the inanimate object a withering glare.

Nearly late for getting to her class she quickly picks up the scythe and places it back on its shelf then turned to pick up her fallen book bag, turning around she dashes out of her apartment shutting the door behind her.

As Maka walked briskly away from her apartment she could swear she heard the sound of metal clanging against a floor.

-End flashback-

"You do realize you tipped over your coffee and stirring into nothing right?" An amused voice brought Maka out of her recollection as she stared at the pink haired woman in front of her before glancing down onto the table that now had cold coffee close to staining the wooden table's surface.

"K-Kim!" Maka embarrassingly squawked as she dived towards the napkin dispenser on her table to clean the mess up. She heard Kim chuckle.

"You sure are distracted Maka, and you're not even reading a book! Boy troubles?" Kim joked lightly as she sat in the empty chair beside Maka to help her clean the table. Maka muttered thanks with a polite smile. Maka was friends with Kim Diehl from high school and was the only person she had seen so far from her high school. Maka then shook her head at Kim's question.

"Me with boy troubles? You surely jest. It's nothing really…just something of mine keeps falling down when I'm sure that where I placed it is secure. However it seems whenever I turn my back to it..it keeps falling." Maka stated, she tapped her pointer finger to her mouth, back in thought on what to do. Kim hummed in thought as well before she got an idea.

"Well Maka if it's like…a painting or something get a better hook? Or if hooks aren't your fancy buy a stand for it." Kim suggested, Maka's eyes lit up as she stared into the other green eyes that belonged to Kim.

"That's a great idea! I'll buy hooks! You're a genius!" Maka exclaims, Kim smirked in faux superiority.

"Oh I know I am Maka, and since you're a friend you'll only need to pay me a small consultation fee!" Kim chirped, a serious yet mischievous grin spread across her face as she held her arm out in front of Maka's face. Making a hand signal to clarify to give her money, she paused a moment at Maka's bewildered expression before she chuckled and withdrew her hand telling Maka she was kidding. Mostly. Maka nervously laughed, from Black Star's rambunctious behaviour to Kim and her obsession with money Maka truly wondered if she would ever acquire normal friends.

She highly doubted that.

Maka looked at her phone to realize it was nearing six o'clock, plans to go to the grocery store to buy some food and now hooks formulated in her mind as she began to gather her things to put them into her book bag. Standing up to bid her friend farewell before exiting the café.

"If you need someone to install the hooks properly all you need to do is ask…and pay of course!" Maka heard Kim called after her. She could just imagine Kim cackling now, reminding Maka of the wicked witch of the west.

Deciding to go to the grocery store first to avoid making another trip, she exited the grocers half an hour later after buying food and a packet of hooks and nails. The moon shone down from the unclouded night sky as she started to make her way home, enjoying the cool breeze. Several minutes later she was passing a side alleyway, sudden movement of shadow in her peripheral vision subconsciously alerted her something was in there. Dismissing this thinking it was probably a cat or a drunkard she continued walking. She did not walk very far to hear trashcans clattering onto the cement, loud dragging noises that were slowly making their way towards the entry of the alleyway. Towards her direction, she did not dare to stare back to the alleyway, her mind already jumping to conclusions.

_'Oh my god. What happens if it's a mugger? Or worse!'_ She all but screamed mentally. Against her better judgement and paranoia she slowly glanced over her shoulder to see who was there, irrational fear slowly ebbing into her.

The irrational fear now being perfectly rational.

What she turned to see was a large, malformed figure. She wouldn't exactly call it human since there was clearly no seemingly resemblance in any kind. The hulking figure was a dark looking creature, it's jaw appeared to be massive compared to the rest of its face, reminding her of a piranha . As it opened its mouth she could see black, oozing sludge coming out of its mouth.

_'What the HELL is that THING? This isn't real right? I-is that a demon?'_ She mentally shrieked. Her fear froze her to the spot as she pleaded to her body to move. After a long moment she finally took a step backwards not letting her eyes part from the monster's form.

Maka resisted the urge to gag from the stench of rotting that assaulted her nose. Her hands gripping her grocery bags tightly as she quickly picked up her pace, her eyes still trained on it. Many scenarios rushing through her head as she thought on what the hell to do. The creature's hollow eyes glanced down to her as if sizing up its prey before it shriek an unearthly screech, picking up its speed to follow her.

She spun on her feet and sprinted like there was no tomorrow with death at her heels. Mentally hitting herself at the bad time to use that analogy. If that- whatever that thing was- caught up to her, she probably wouldn't see tomorrow. Stein was finally going to be giving the class homework tomorrow too…

Right. Back to running for dear life.

Running through alleyways she didn't normally go by she tried desperately to throw the monster off her trail, darting under pipes and jumping over fences. Her legs ached something fierce and her mouth tasted like metal at the over exertion but she knew she needed to keep running, noticing a familiar street sign she was only five or so minutes away from her home. Hoping to god that she would be safe there she shot a glance over her shoulder and to her surprise the creature was not pursuing her as the lane she exited moments before was empty. This did not relieve her apprehension as she turned into another street, her apartment coming into view. Her eyes flickering everywhere around her surroundings skeptikcally, she urged her legs to increase in speed even though she felt ready to collapse.

When she reached the apartment complex she all but tackled open the entrance doors, still running as she darted up the stairs, taking two steps at a time. One flight of stairs later she made the last dash towards her apartment door, quickly snatching her keys out of her bag nearly throwing herself inside as soon as the door was opened. Slamming the door behind her she locked all three of the looks on her door, even the deadbolt. She leaned her back against the door then bent down to place her hands on top of her knees breathing heavily. Her mind buzzing from the overuse of adrenaline.

'_That was the most horrifying thing I have ever seen in my entire life. Seriously what the hell was that thing! There must be a logical explanation for it! There's no such things as demons or monsters!'_She desperately tried to deny the last twenty minutes of her life she did not want to remember, Maka knew it was no use lying to herself. Whatever that thing was it was a monster.

Not of this world.

Pushing herself from the door she slowly dragged her feet towards her couch, practically falling into it, ready to collapse then and there. Belatedly realizing now that she must have dropped one of her shopping bags, as there was only one remaining on the floor near the door. The occurrence of tonight replaying in her mind like a movie, she hopes that she doesn't get nightmares from this ordeal. Or the monster coming back to deal with her while she was sleeping.

There goes the idea of sleep. She berated herself, now afraid to sleep out of paranoia like a kid with a bogeyman problem. Though that monster she encountered was very much real, and is lurking somewhere in the city. Rolling over on the couch she stared up at the ceiling with a groan, she could still feel her legs throbbing.

"Seriously…why the sudden strange monster appearance!" She muttered aloud to the ceiling, somewhat hoping the ceiling would answer her but she continued on her monologue. "I'm just a normal person really! Why on Earth did it have to target me, I haven't done anything! Urgh what did I do…there has to be something!"

-CLANG-

Her eyes widened as they darted from the ceiling to the scythe that was now on the floor again. Slowly sitting up she stared at it for a long time, mostly looking into its eye. It felt like the inanimate object was glaring back, creeping her out immensely. A moment later her face contorted into an accusatory death glare as she jumped from her couch and pointed to it.

"It's YOU!" Maka yelled at the scythe, her nostrils flaring in rage. "You have got to be the reason! Falling from that shelf even though there is plenty of room there to keep you in place. It's like you're possessed! Then I run into that demon thing who probably wanted to eat me or steal my soul or something. So that's it! I'm blaming you, and I'm returning you tomorrow!" Maka finished with a scream. She didn't bother returning the scythe to the shelf; it remained on the floor as she stomped towards her bedroom and slammed the door.

Despite her fears of staying awake out of paranoia, the exhaustion from tonight caught up with her with blinding speed, passing out as soon as her head hit the pillow.

-x- TBC –x-

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><p>AN: And that's it for chapter three. I need to write up more chapter outlines before I continue, I have quite a few ways I could go with this so I'm thinking of which way to take it. I just hope you'll still continue reading the story! Though if you do have any suggestions you are more than welcome to review and tell me your feedback.

See you in the next chapter!

-KC


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Hello again everyone :D Thank you for your reviews! Though I would just like to state again that I'm still new to writing, so I may slow down slightly with updating, unless I'm on a roll like I have been lately..

Special note: Ubiquiton, thank you for the constructive feedback! I shall be editing the flashback scene from last chapter tomorrow to make sure the segment is in past tense in case anyone gets confused. And then probably edit through the previous chapter and this one. I really do appreciate your critique. If there is anything else you think I need to work on you're more than welcome to tell me! :D

I think I'll try to make sure each chapter is no shorter than 2000 words. If you have any suggestions feel free to review and tell me or tell me if I'm ruining the story yet lol.

And please...can someone explain to a newbie like me how to space out chapters? I've tried quite a few times and I can't figure it out. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

So without further ado…

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><p>Chapter Four<p>

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><p>Maka woke up exhausted the next morning as she slowly got out of bed. Her legs were stiff while the rest of her body urged to go back to bed. She wondered for a moment on why her body was so tired until she belatedly remembered the monster that was chasing her last night, she frowned. After having a shower and got dressed she walked into the kitchen to make toast. Taking the toast to the living room she glanced down that the scythe still on the floor, this time it didn't faze her as she stepped over it to sit on the couch.<p>

"Hah! Can't fall further than the ground! And after I come home from class I'm returning you." She barked at the inanimate object in a condescending tone. Taking an overly dramatic bite out of her toast for emphasis. After finishing breakfast she gathered her books into her bag walking towards the door not sparing the scythe a second glance.

When she entered her class she noticed the tense atmosphere of the students seemed to be the sense of foreboding, most of their faces looked on at the whiteboard at the front with dread. As she sat down in her usual spot she decided to follow their line of vision she noticed that Stein was sitting at his desk with a maniacal smile threatening to break his face from how wide it was. He repositioned his glasses before standing up, picking up the pile of folders on his desk. Stein turned to them and held one of the folders up.

"Now class we shall be reviewing your new assignment that I expect you to complete in two weeks. Three thousand word essay about the history of heritage towns and cities in America and how the population constructed infrastructure and how the revenue was properly managed. And for your homework you'll research one extinct animal and explain in 500 words explaining the causes on why it didn't manage to survive long enough for me to dissect it." Stein stated, his bizarre grin had long since gone and replaced with a serious frown. A collective groan echoed the class while Maka perked up, finally happy to be given homework. No matter how ludicrous it was.

Today was going to be a good day.

Several hours later it was now three o'clock and her class were over as she walked home humming. Though in the back of her mind was still on high alert in case she had a repeat of yesterday. Much to her immense relief no monsters approached or followed her. Was it a cliché monster? The type you here in stories that only go bump in the night?

Probably.

As Maka entered her apartment she sat down on her couch, placing her book bag beside her she fished out her textbook, notebook and a pen, placing them onto the coffee table. She paused, feeling like she was forgetting to do something. Eyes flickering to the scythe on the floor she recalled returning the scythe, her eyes darted back and forth between the scythe and her textbook, torn between which task to approach first.

_'Homework first then I'll return the possessed scythe, it's been so long since I was able to do any!'_ Sending the scythe a glare she then focused happily on her homework. The homework didn't last as long as she hoped it would of, finishing it within half an hour. At least she had an essay to keep her busy, but it would have to wait for now.

Peering down at the scythe, it honestly seemed innocent. Albeit falling down the first time and nearly cutting her head off started her slight paranoia that it might be possessed and trying to kill her. Maka bit her lip as she mulled it over, was all these strange occurrences just coincidence? She wondered if Black Star was having the same problem…

Her eyes widened in shock as she realised she hadn't heard from Black Star in two days, the last time was when they had just bought the weapons. Snatching up her cordless home phone she swiftly typed in his number, waiting as the dial tone seemed to drag on as she knitted her eyebrows together. After what felt like ages he finally answered.

"Yo this is Black Star!" He greeted in a lively tone. Maka silently sighed in relief before responding.

"Hey Black Star, it's Maka…" She began.

"Oh hey Maka! S'up?"

"Hey this is going to sound a bit strange… but has anything…weird happened lately since you bought that chain scythe?" Maka asked, hoping she didn't sound odd. She heard him hum in thought before replying.

"Come to think of it…there have been small instances that are weird. Like when I pass the weapon sometimes I could have sworn it morphed into a different weapon, but as soon as I do a double take to check it's back to the chain scythe. And then there was the last two nights…I was practicing my godly training outside-" Maka quickly interrupting him in a chastising tone.

"Black Star they are ornamental weapons! They are not real weapons to be used for that kind of thing-" Maka lectured before Black Star interrupted her.

"They ARE real, I can tell!" He shot back before he continued. "Anyway, the last two nights when I was training outside with the weapon I swear I could feel someone watching me, the great me does not like an unseen audience! Commoners must worship me openly!" He complained then continued to prattle on about how much of an expert he is within the two days of acquiring the weapon. Maka tuned him out for a few moments, not like he would be able to tell anyway since he loves to talk about himself. Frowning in thought this new information proved to Maka that she was not making up the weapons being peculiar, and maybe what is watching him is the same creature that stalked her. Catching the last segment on his conversation she interjected swiftly.

"Well, weird things have been happening to me since I bought that scythe as well. I'm thinking of returning it." Pausing briefly her eyes glimpsed towards the scythe, staring at its red eye for a few seconds before getting an unnerving feeling.

"I'm also starting to get paranoid that it's staring at me." She added, quickly glancing away from the scythe before continuing. "Do you want to come with me? You can return your chain scythe too."

"Are you kidding? You can return your weapon but I'm keeping mine! And I can't go to your place today, I've got some errands to do. I'll catch ya tomorrow or something okay?" Black Star said as Maka muttered an okay before they said goodbye and hung up. Dropping the phone onto the couch with a sigh she stood up and walked over to the scythe and plucked the weapon from the floor.

_'Time to get this matter sorted.'_ Maka thought determinedly, grabbing her purse before walking out of her apartment to return to DWMA.

Half an hour later, and a few wrong turns to her chagrin to repeat the mistakes of Black Star, she finally found the weapon antique store. The doorbell jingled once more as Maka strode inside. Sid was sitting on a seat behind the counter, flicking through a magazine before looking up to greet her. Recognizing her his eyes widened slightly before glancing towards the scythe in her hand, he sighed.

Waltzing up to the counter with a small frown she placed the scythe on the counter before looking up at him and pointing to the weapon.

"Take this scythe back." Maka stated in a snippy tone. Sid raised an eyebrow.

"Why? What's wrong with it?" He innocently replied. She scoffed before crossing her arms, opening her mouth to rant.

"I've had bad luck ever since I've bought this scythe! Heck the first night it nearly impaled me! It kept falling down constantly like it was possessed. And then I encountered a monster that was probably sent from hell trying to stalk, eat or kill me! I don't want to deal with this kind of thing so take it back, I want a refund!" She fumed while she glared at him. It didn't faze him in the slightest; he merely raised his hands in surrender.

"I'm sorry miss but no refunds; it's your own fault that the both of you bought weapons that are cursed." Sid stated matter-of-factly. It took a few moments for her to digest what he said before her eyes widened in shock, her mouth agape like a fish out of water. She spluttered for a brief moment before she collected herself.

"Wait..WHAT? Cursed? You have got to be joking! Like…I knew something weird was going on when strange things happened to me. But seriously! You didn't tell me that scythe is cursed! Why the hell didn't you tell me that sooner?" Maka demanded.

"You left the store before I remembered to warn you. I'm extremely forgetful sometimes... sadly that's the type of man I am." Sid replied simply with a shrug as if that diffused the situation. Maka was tempted to Maka-Chop him on the spot.

"The weapon is cursed and you want me to still keep it because of a lousy no refund policy? What's wrong with you!" She shrieked.

"No refunds. So the weapon is cursed…it's not like you've been harmed, wouldn't say the same for another customer who bought one of the Death City weapons." Despite her better judgement she was suddenly very curious about this, temporarily forgetting her outrage. She held up her hand to pause him for a moment, her eyes flickering to the scythe before levelling Sid with a serious glare.

"Okay…so you actually haven't told me anything about the curse…care to elaborate?" Maka questioned. Sid crossed his arms with a contemplative expression.

"Well…usually I'm not the type of man to discuss customer privacy but since curses seem to be a pretty big deal I'll tell you. When I explored Death City to find the weapons I honestly thought they were just the normal type of weapons, when I brought them back to me the first one I sold was to this timid violet –haired woman. Well…I'm pretty sure it was a girl, it was extremely hard to tell." He paused as if to check is memory if this information was correct, he shrugged as he continued.

"I do recall they wanted a weapon for protection, so she bought the long sword I brought with me. However, not so long after she bought it I remember watching tv one night to find that same woman to appear on tv. Apparently driven insane she started attacking people one day when she was at church, the sword still in her hand. The once timid girl was laughing joyously as she slaughtered many innocent people. She was completely out of control. Unfortunately police had to intervene though. .." Sid trailed off meaningfully as Maka comprehended what that entailed.

At first Maka was tempted to state maybe the girl had other factors coming into play to cause such a violent outburst, however if the woman was still holding onto the cursed weapon while attacking people, that only further proves that the weapons of Death City are not to be taken lightly. A few minutes passed as Maka thought about what happened to that poor woman. Her mind wondered briefly about what she felt when she touched her scythe. Maka didn't believe she held ill thoughts when she held it in her hands. Nor the driven need to harm anyone. Only weird instances happening around her. All the anger dissipated from her and now was more curious as to anything else. It felt like a mystery to her, a mystery that needed to be resolved. And she was up for that challenge. Glancing up at Sid she leaned onto the counter, tapping the scythe again in thought as she felt the familiar tingle of warmth from the weapon.

"So Sid…you said that was the first customer to buy a weapon from Death City, correct?" Maka asked. He nodded in reply before she spoke again.

"How many other customers have you had that have bought weapons from Death City?" She questioned further. Sid was deep in thought again as it took a brief moment for him to remember.

"Apart from you and that loud mouth friend of yours, there was one other person." Sid recalled before continuing.

"Come to think of it, he was a very unusual person. His appearance was unmistakable. I do believe nothing bad happened to him, so I presume he wasn't affected greatly by the curse."

Maka leaned forward, her expression pleading to him to reveal more information.

"I remember when he entered the store, he had an extremely peculiar hair color. It was black…but then he had three white stripes on one side of his head. I didn't know if that was a new trend or something at the time, I didn't ask. But as soon as he set foot into my store and glanced around his face contorted like he was witnessing a murder scene." Sid chuckled at the memory while Maka raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"I was very confused when he started shrieking, it looked like he was on the verge of tears. Then suddenly he regained his composure, basically pulling off every weapon on the wall. Of course I'm not the type of guy that would stand idly by as a strange person was trying to destroy my store. I shouted at him and he told me that he was fixing the filthy asymmetrical room that I have, and he was going to organise all of the weapons to achieve symmetrical glory. Maybe the kid didn't need to be cursed, he was already beyond help. The guy had major OCD issues however he was messing up my store so I threatened to call the cops. To which he replied he could easy pay bail if he got arrested since his father was the CEO of some huge company….I think the company was named something that sounded like…Gregory." Sid finished recalling as he stared into her now anxious expression. Her eyes seemed to have caught something of interest in that sentence though she did not seemed thrilled. Maka took a deep breath before speaking.

"Wait…could the name of the company possibly be…Grigori?" She enquired. He snapped his fingers before nodding.

"Yea! That sounds like it. They have strange sounding companies nowadays…Anyway he stopped trying to rearrange my store when he came across the dual pistols that were also from Death City. Practically begged me to sell them to him. I agreed so he could get the hell out of my store, apart from that I have no other information. Sorry." Sid apologized. Maka shook her head and hand in dismissal.

"Well thanks for your help Sid. I'll be taking my scythe back with me." She said while picking up the scythe, she bid farewell to the man before exiting the store heading back to her apartment.

She honestly hadn't expected what she had heard, her mind replaying what had been revealed.

'_Maybe the curse varied from person to person? Either way…_' Maka clenched the scythe tightly in her hands.

'_I'm going to find out more about this strange curse.'_Her eyes narrowed, unleashing a rattled sigh.

Maka knew someone who could possibly provide her with the needed information about the OCD kid. With her empty hand she dug into her pocket and withdrew her phone before grimacing. The person she always hated to rely on…

Her papa.

Not even three seconds passed before he answered.

"MAKA! MY PRECIOUS LITTLE ANGEL-!" He basically screamed with excitement. Instantly snatching her phone from her ear to avoid going deaf. Waiting a few moments til he calmed down to the best of his ability, which was not much, before she began to speak to him.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine papa, no I don't want you to visit me…stop and try to listen for a sec okay? I need to ask you a favor."

"Anything for my Maka-angel!" Spirit cooed, Maka resisted the urge to hit her head against the brick wall she was currently walking past.

"Okay…I need you to tell me about your boss' son, like where he lives." Maka supplied, she heard a sudden squawk of protest.

"You want information about my boss's son! No Maka you're too young to be fraternising with boys! Papa won't allow it!" He barked, Maka groaned at his idiocy.

"No papa, I'm not wanting it for those types of reasons, he has some information that I want to find out, and before you ask I don't want to tell you what the information is." She snapped. Hearing him utter a defeated sigh, she grinned in victory.

"Okay, I'll tell you where he lives….but in return I want you to go on a dinner date with me next week." Spirit beamed happily.

The smirk instantly dropped from her face as she halted her walking out of shock. Moments passed while she still stood frozen. She did not expect him to act so slyly, she slowly weighed her options.

Is trying to figure out the strange occurrences of cursed weapons leading to insane people and monsters lurking in the night really worth spending a couple of hours with her papa?

Her finger twitched towards the end call button.

After a massive amount of restraint she resisted the urge and agreed, sealing her doomed fate for the sake of curiosity.

-x- TBC –x-

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><p>AN: I'm sorry guys if this story suddenly sucks for you D:

I'm sorry! If you want to ask any questions/ suggest or give feedback feel free to review.

See you (later) in the next chapter.

-KC


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Hello everyone. Still going to notify you guys that updates will be slower since I still need to work on the story. Thanks for the reviews, it's a great sense of encouragement. And what I meant in the previous chapter regarding help. How do you space out paragraphs in chapters? I really hate my chapters being so squished. If you can tell me how to space them out properly you'll have my sincere gratitude.

Anyway without further ado…

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><p>Chapter Five<p>

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><p>The OCD kid now finally had a name.<p>

Death The Kidd.

Maka had to ask her papa several times if that was his real name; Spirit swore that Death The Kidd was his full name. Maka scoffed at how ridiculous it was.

Seriously, who would put a 'the' in their kid's name...or death...or kid...

Come to think of it the whole name was horrible, she wondered if his extreme OCD issues developed to get revenge at his parents for giving him such a terrible name. She wouldn't blame him. Though she decided when she did speak to him she'd refer to him as Kidd.

And to think her baka papa worked for Kidd's father. She was glad her mother named her, knowing Spirit he would have wanted to name her Little Angel or something horribly similar. Maka briefly wondered what she would be named if she was in Kidd's position. If her papa was like that he would have named her…

Angel Of Death? A small giggle escaped her mouth.

Now that was silly.

Calming down from her giggling Maka took a sip from her morning tea. Waking up fairly earlier than she normally did, deciding to pace herself with having a non-rushed breakfast while she thought on her plans today. Maka planned to visit Kidd's manor after classes that afternoon. Once she got all the information she could gather from Kidd she'd then figure out her next course of action. Black Star will need to know, deciding to tell him afterwards. Though she had a feeling he would not care in the slightest.

Classes seemed to drag on to her disliking. The one day she did not want to be in class as she glanced at the wall mounted clock for what seemed the hundredth time in two hours, taping her pen against the textbook in front of her in impatience.

What felt like a lifetime later her classes were finally over at two o'clock. The address she had to go to was on Alabaster Drive. It was on the rich side of town which meant at least a forty-five minute walk.

_'I really should invest in a car one of these days.'_ Maka thought to herself sadly as she slowly began her trek to Kidd's house.

The manor was extravagant, the picturesque houses you would find in high ended or home magazines. It was a lovely modern European design, and was no doubt the envy of many, herself included as she approached the large mahogany door.

Reaching up to press the bell chime she waited nervously, trying to mull over exactly how she should approach him about this matter.

A few moments later she heard loud, hurried steps heading towards the door before the door was wrenched open revealing a female with short hair. The girl's blue eyes focused on Maka's before she presented an extremely happy grin.

"Howdy! What can I do for ya?" The blonde drawled in a friendly manner, waving excitedly for emphasis. Maka took a step back before smiling politely at the girl.

"Um hi there, is this the residence of Death The Kidd?" Maka questioned. The girl nodded enthusiastically.

"You betcha! Didja want to see Kiddo?" She asked.

"Yes, if he's available, my name is Maka Albarn. I'm hoping he can provide some information for me."

"Sure he's available! Him and Liz are in his office at the moment doing boring paperwork so feel free to interrupt that, guests are more fun! Come in!" The girl giggled while gesturing for Maka to enter. Maka was amazed at how lovely the interior design and architecture is. However she couldn't help but notice that this was definitely Kidd's home, the symmetrical setting was uncanny.

_'He has got it BAD.' _Maka thought with a shake of her head while she followed the girl.

After a few steps the girl in front of her spun around abruptly invading Maka's personal space as the girl leaned near her face with a grin. Maka leaned back out of reflex as the girl whipped out her hand towards her.

"I'm Patty by the way! Nice ta meetcha Maka!" Patty drawled happily before Maka rose her own hand to give Patty's a small shake.

However Patty did not let go of her hand, instead she grasped it more firmly. While Maka tried to protest Patty cut her off with a tug.

"This way Maka!" Patty called; turning around the girl began to skip, tugging on Maka's hand again to catch up with a giggle. Maka picked up her pace as she was awkwardly lead by the lively girl.

When the duo reach the end of the corridor Patty jerked Maka's hand as they turned left into another passageway. Coming up to a set of double doors Patty stopped before them. In one deft motion she raised her leg and kicked open the doors. Maka squeaked in surprise as Patty waltzed into the room, dragging Maka inside. Two other people were in the room, a male teen sat in a desk still writing on some paper in front of him, she noticed his golden eyes were still focused on the paper. Maka quickly glanced at the other occupant, a woman that looked similar to Patty was seated at the corner of the desk where Kidd sat, her dark blue eyes narrowed in concentration as she filed her nails. Neither of them looked up from the commotion that Patty caused. Maka raised an eyebrow in astonishment.

They were used to this girl's erratic behaviour?

"Hi Liz! Hi Kiddo! Maka wants to talk with ya!" Patty yelled then pulled Maka in front of her, Maka squeaked again before regaining her balance.

"…Maka?" Kidd questioned, clearly confused. His golden eyes glanced in Maka's direction, trying to recall who the person standing in front of them was. Her name failed to register.

"Patty did you invite another salesperson in again? Look we don't want anything unless it's makeup!" The older female snapped, her eyes narrowed briefly towards Maka then she focused her attention back onto her nails.

"Ah no, I'm not a salesperson! You probably don't know me but my dad works for yours. But that's not why I am here. I was wondering if you could provide me information..."

"You're not a stalker are you?" Liz interjected without looking at her, Patty guffawed.

Before Maka could reply Kidd help up his hand, informing Liz to calm down. Kidd levelled Maka with an appraising stare, making Maka feel self-conscious. After a long moment his expression changed, a wide grin spread across as his face as his eyes suddenly had a sparkling gleam added to them.

"What information do you want to know my fine symmetrical friend?" He gushed. Liz raised her hand to pinch the bridge of her nose. If any salesperson appeared at the manor perfectly symmetrical Kidd would buy anything from them, though she was still wary about this Maka girl.

"Well I need information about…something you purchased at a store….weapons from DWMA?" She asked with a wince. Liz snapped her head towards Maka, fully focused on her now. Kidd's eyes narrowed as he stood up from his chair, taking a few steps towards Maka, the two girls following behind him closely. All of the expressions on the three took a serious turn. Though it seemed like Patty was just replicating the other two before she broke out into another large grin though her eyes were wary.

"What about the weapons? Are you a witch?" For a brief moment Maka noticed the girls beside him lifted their hands to hold each of Kidd's hands. The girls looked apprehensive though Kidd still regarded Maka with a guarded expression. Maka raised an eyebrow in query.

"What? No I'm not a witch? Listen I just wanted to say I also bought a weapon from DWMA. And I don't know if you haven't noticed, but apparently they're cursed. My weapon keeps falling like it's possessed and then I was chased by a demon creature. And apparently another person was driven insane from the weapon she bought. So I was wondering if you have had anything happen to you?" Maka rapidly explained herself sensing a tense atmosphere, it seemed like a touchy conversation to them. Liz scowled and was about to open her mouth to snap at Maka until Kidd raised his arm again to still her. Kidd let go of their hands as he straightened up to look at Maka.

It took a several minutes before Kidd finally decided to reveal what he knew.

"I do know the weapons are cursed, in a certain way. Though they are more cursed themselves than the owners. I have encountered a demon quite a few times since I bought he weapons, and it had come close to killing me a few times. It seems to stalk anyone who purchases the weapons. Some things differ I presume. I vaguely researched this when I was told-"

"Sid told you about the weapons being cursed?" Maka interrupted.

"Sid? Oh that storeperson…No…I heard it from a more reliable source." He stated calmly.

"Oh? Who else knows?" Maka further inquired

He avoided answering her as he continued.

"The girl that was driven insane…Her name was Chrona, I believe the reason she was driven insane was because the weapon she purchased was quite…evil. Ragnarok was its name, it was one of the very few weapons from Death City that were extremely tainted, those types were the most heavily affected with 'cursing' its owners. If you feel any killing intent or losing your grip on your sanity then you have yourself a doomed fate, though it seems you got lucky. "

"So where are your weapons?"

"They're…around." Kidd darted his eyes to the wall behind her.

"Um…okay." Maka said awkwardly. Kidd regarded at Liz for a moment before she in turn nodded. Maka quirked an eyebrow at their silent conversation.

"Your weapon means no harm to you or your friend I believe." Kidd assured Maka.

"The first night I brought it home it fell and nearly impaled me" She stated flatly, crossing her arms.

"I'm sure that…was an accident."

"Maka was it?" Liz questioned.

"Y-yes?"

"Can you tell us…which weapon you bought?"

"Oh well I bought a weapon with my friend. I bought a scythe while he bought a chain scythe-"

"It's Soul and Tsubaki! Sis we f-" Patty squealed but was quickly interrupted when Liz covered her mouth, sending her a warning glare.

'_Soul? Tsubaki? Was that the names of their weapons? What odd names.'_

"I have a question for you myself now Maka." This time it was Kidd to question her.

"Shoot."

"Does your weapon still have yellow wrapping around it with black symbols?"

Maka's eyes widened in recognition, come to think of it she never did try to take off the wrapping again after Sid startled her the first time.

"Yes, it does. Why do you ask?"

"When you return home, try taking off the scrolls, I'm sure once you do that the weapon will finally explain itself." He said with a smirk.

"Okay I'll do that, and if I do take them off and I suddenly die or something I'm going to poltergeist your house items and make the place asymmetrical." Maka threatened.

Kidd's eyes widened to comical proportions while his face contorted into sheer horror. His hands shooting up to his hair, grabbing a fistful of his dark and white locks in each hand. Falling to his knees on the floor as he tried to will away the shocking mental images.

"Now look what you did…honestly…" Liz trailed off as she and Patty bent down to his eye level, she placed a reassuring hand onto his head while her other hand tried to gently pry away his hands from his head.

"Bwahahah! Just thinking about that makes Kiddo go crazy!" Patty giggled while she roughly patted Kidd on the back.

"I'm sorry! Look Kidd I'll promise I won't do anything to you if I die. You're place shall be forever symmetrical." Maka apologized, taking a mental note to not threaten to ruin any type of symmetry in Kidd's presence.

"Oh? If you died could you continue to help me make my house symmetrical?" Kidd requested, regaining his composure as he looked up to Maka with hopeful eyes.

"Uh…I guess? I don't really want to die though." Maka laughed nervously.

"Don't worry ya won't die! You're in for a pleasant surprise-" Patty was again cut off by her sister's hand covering her mouth.

"Okay well, I'm sorry for intruding. Thank you for the information. If I have any further questions would it be okay if I come back?"

"But of course, I'm sure we'll be seeing you quite often in the future." Kidd assured her.

"Alright then…Well I shouldn't keep you, I'll see you all later then! Goodbye." Maka bid them farewell as she slowly navigated her way out of the mansion.

'_Now there was a weird trio…are there any normal people in this city!' _Maka thought with a sigh as she returned home fifty minutes later.

Placing her bag on the couch she marched over to the scythe, surprised it was still stationary on its shelf above the fireplace. The yellow wrapping around its handle now glaringly obvious as she picked it up.

_'Alrighty time to get to the bottom of this.'_ She thought in determination as she raised one of her hands to the top of the wrapping just underneath the blade. Slowly grabbing a piece she peeled it off, before continuing with another. The only thing that she was aware of happening was the handle in her grip was getting warmer. Moments later her hand was latched onto the last scroll, she took a deep breath as she yanked it off the scythe.

-ZAP-

Maka dropped the scythe with a shriek as it felt like she was electrocuted again. Before the scythe hit the floor though it stopped and straightened up, now fully vertical. The scythe was engulfed in a bright light, Maka quickly shielded her face in her jacket sleeve while she waited for the light to dull enough so she could see.

After a few moments the light faded entirely, she lowered her arm and almost stumbled backwards out of shock.

Green eyes met blood red.

A male appeared in the place of the scythe, his hair was snow white was a stark contrast to his light tan skin. His was wearing an extremely tattered black suit, if it were in better condition she would have thought it suited his appearance nicely. He stretched his arms and held them to his neck before rolling his neck to the side slightly, closing his eyes until he heard a satisfying crack. He snapped his eyes open and stared at her, then slowly let a grin sneak onto his features showing her a mouth full of sharp teeth.

"It was uncool of you to keep me waiting."

-x- TBC -x-

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><p>AN: And thus finally enters Soul. Only five chapters in. Hopefully you don't mind! Feel free to review if you are enjoying this story or would like to give me lovely feedback. I'm not sure if I'm going to make this long or short story.


	6. Chapter 6

Sorry for the long absence, a lot of issues have been happening here and it gets pretty overwhelming. I'll try to make it up to you guys D: I don't know where I put this story's storyline so I'm trying to remember, hopefully you won't be disappointed! And if I don't update after this before 2012…..Merry Christmas and any other festivities you might enjoy and see you in 2012!

So without further ado….

EDIT- Thank you Stre for reminding me, I actually forgot about the Stein thing, it is now fixed. c:

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><p>Chapter Six<p>

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><p>"Would-… you let…me- explain! OW! PUT THE FREAKING BOOKS DOWN WOMAN!" The scythe- now- an- albino human screeched frantically towards Maka, who was holding an armful of books ready at her disposal. She raised another book, poised and ready to strike while he muttered a curse, rubbing his head where she managed to hit him. He sent her an apprehensive glare towards her hand.<p>

God damn did those books hurt. He raised his hands in surrender, trying to look as non-threatening as possible as he thought over an approach.

"How about we make a deal pigtails…I'll tell you everything you want to know if you stop trying to put me in a coma, so put the books down." He pleaded. Maka stood still for a few moments, a contemplative look in her emerald eyes. A sigh escaped her lips as she placed the books she was holding back onto the bookshelf, once she restored the books to their proper place she made her way towards the couch. After she sat down she stared up at him, patting the vacant seat on the couch beside her, motioning him to sit down. The albino's ruby eyes never left her figure as walked over to the couch, still highly wary in case she tried to attack him, he pegged her as a fiery and violent type.

"I'm not going to hurt you….anymore, my books are all the way over there, we have a deal so I'll hear you out." Maka assured him as he sat down, even with this promise of safety he scooted as far as he could away from her. There was a moment of silence as Maka was once again in thought, thinking of what to ask, there was so many questions buzzing in her mind that she had no idea where to start. She turned to face him, one hand under her chin as the other arm supported it underneath.

"So…..where to begin?" Maka asked. The albino hummed in response, his eyes went thoughtful before he sighed, he began tapping the side of the couch in rapid beats.

"I don't know, the beginning would probably be the best but I don't want to overwhelm that brain of yours." He replied. Maka narrowed her eyes at him in response.

"Try me." She hissed.

"Chill pigtails-"

"It's Maka." She interrupted.

"I know, my name's Soul."

"How did you know my name-"

"I'll get to that." He assured, she shifted on the couch to get comfortable.

"Okay…now that the introductions are over can you tell me who…or what you are?"

"Hmm let's see…I'm obviously a "who" but as you've seen I just transformed from a scythe so I'm not your average human. I'm also a weapon, a scythe weapon to be precise." Soul supplied, he leant back into the couch to get more comfortable before he continued.

"Before you ask, I was born like this…the place I come from, Death City, it's a pretty cool place, there were a lot of people that were similar to me that could transform into all different types and sizes-"

"Wait…so why are people born like that only in Death City?"

"Because Death City is….hate to sound cliché coz that's uncool, but it's a place full of supernatural beings, it was first built by some powerful geezer named Eibon eons ago. Human weapons and technicians, witches, demons…you name it, we have them in DC. Technicians are the humans that can wield us weapon types, weapon and technician partnerships were created to protect the "balance" of this world. The balance being if we protect the world as best we can from demons that devour the souls of innocent people, we try to prevent them from doing that so the world won't sink into the depths of madness. Witches are also bad but they had signed a treaty not to attack the city or use people for their own sinister plans. But that all went down the freaking drain when they did attack us…" Soul paused for a moment, a frown marred his features as he recalled the event, Maka was tempted to pat his shoulder or provide some sort of comfort but thought against it since they were practically strangers and she didn't want to make it awkward.

"What did they do?" She questioned, he sighed before he continued.

"The treaty was signed eons ago as well, and the witches seemed to be docile, they were allowed to live in DC, they had their own section of the city so there wouldn't be too many fights. I guess we gave them too much freedom, we didn't follow our suspicions when human weapons started to go missing. Then the next thing you know they gathered by the hundreds and attacked us, they killed many people and decimated half of DC, they captured many human weapons, I have no idea what they planned to do with us. We knew we were losing the battle, badly. It was an uncool move but the rest of the weapons who weren't captured had to retreat and hide, the remaining technicians led us to an underground laboratory led by this weird ass guy by the name of Joe, he made these strange witch warding scrolls that would protect us from the witches. The scrolls could only work if we were in our weapon form, what the crazy guy forgot to mention was that we couldn't transform back to our human forms unless the scrolls were removed. I have no idea how long I've been in that form for…witches attacked in 2008…what year is it now?"

"2011… so three years in that form." Maka replied with a wince.

'_Three years in that type of state? That would have driven me insane.'_ Maka thought empathetically.

Maka was brought out of her thoughts as she saw him raise his hands to his hair and began ruffling his hair before he stood up from the couch, stretching his arms before he heard a satisfying crack.

"Three years...man…so uncool…heh, even missed my 21st…Sucks, but that's a trivial matter, gotta focus on the bigger picture." He muttered.

"And what would that be Soul?" Maka questioned.

"Kicking some witches asses comes to mind, but first-" He was cut off as his stomach made an overly loud gurgling noise, he grimaced towards her, his sharp teeth poking out of his mouth while doing so. She placed her hand in front of her mouth to stifle a chuckle before standing up.

"First I assume you would want some food, three years without it...you have a lot to make up for. You can relax here while I go make something for you. Did you want anything specific?"

"Everything."

"Um, okay, I'll see what I can whip up. I'll try not to take too long." Maka assured as she made her way into the kitchen she heard him say 'cool' before she wondered what could placate a three year old appetite.

She somehow knew a salad would not suffice.

* * *

><p>Soul leaned back in his chair, hands intertwined loosely on his stomach, a satisfied grin etched on his features as he let out a rather loud burp. Maka looked at him with slight disgust, though that's not the most disgusting sight she's seen today…<p>

The kitchen was a complete mess. She tried to mentally block out the mental image of saucepans and pans stacked up high, it will take her some time to clean that disaster up. Deciding to ignore it she went to her fridge to get a glass of orange juice.

Only to be reminded that her fridge was now completely empty, she sighed as she walked back to where Soul sat in a near food induced coma.

"So….you ate everything in my fridge Soul….even the mayonnaise that expired months ago…" She stated, placing her left arm on her hip a small frown on her lips. Soul shrugged his shoulders, his grin only grew at her expression before he let out a yawn.

"Worth it, though I am dead tired." Soul said with a yawn.

"Well I guess you can stay here for a bit until you get everything sorted, I'd like to help with….whatever it is you're related to, but on the very rare chance you try anything funny I will Maka-chop you into hell, okay?" She threatened, the fake sweet smile on her face was eerily creepy as she left the room. Moments later she returned with a blanket and pillow, tossing them lightly towards him. Soul took off his tattered coat, leaving him in a red cotton shirt and his tattered pants before he began to prepare his make shift bed before he replied.

"Thanks, if you want to be dragged into this, I won't stop you. But trust me, I don't go for flat chested girls."

"MAKA-"

"Huh?"

"-CHOP!"

Soul was then forced into the land of dreamland ahead of schedule.

_-x- TBC –x-_

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><p><em>AN: Sorry that it's so short! I'll try to make the next chapter longer. Hang in there guys! _

_Feedback would be greatly appreciated as I have no idea how to go from here._

_See you in the next chapter I hope. D:_

_-KC_


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** So here is the long overdue chapter that you guys have been waiting for! Hopefully I won't disappoint you. I will post this as chapter 8 but then move it to 7, it's just to notify you guys that I have finally updated a chapter 8D.

So without further ado…

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><p><strong>Chapter Seven<strong>

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><p>Maka woke up earlier than usual the following morning, her stomach growled loudly, wanting sustenance, she groaned back at it in annoyance. In her half-awake daze she slouched towards her kitchen to open the fridge…<p>

Only to remember a certain albino had devoured her household. She sighed as she looked over to the source of the problem. His snow locks peeked over one side of the couch while his feet hung over the other side, she found it comical that he was too big for her couch. A few moments passed before Maka, being the ever inquisitive, decided to walk towards the albino to observe his sleeping form. Careful not to wake him up she quietly stood a foot away, she took in his appearance unabashed.

Soul looked tired and worn, his dishevelled attire looked like it had seen better days, a once expensive looking tailor suit now rags, luckily it covered most of him. Maka wondered if it was because he was stuck in his weapon form for so long that the outfit started to disintegrate. Seeing faint scars that lingered on his skin she began to think otherwise. She sighed softly to herself thinking about what he told her last night, she rubbed her hands together in thought.

_'I don't want to back out of this, my mind is set that I want to learn more about what happened. It could be dangerous though… but I'm sure Soul can handle it…I think.'_

"It's creepy when you stare at me like that." Soul drawled sleepily as he yawned. Maka snapped out of her thoughts, willing herself not to blush at the accusation of being a creep. She tried to hide it by lifting her hand to her mouth to cough before straightening up. He sat up, yawning once more before tousling his hair.

"I wasn't staring, ahem, anyway there's no food left and I'm thinking we should probably grab some breakfast down the street." Maka said. Soul's eyes lit up at the mention of food before looking down at his attire.

"As much as that sounds great do you have any guy threads? People might think I'm some crazy person." He groaned. Maka looked at him with an apologetic stare.

"I'm sorry Soul but I don't have any guy stuff but I guess I could ring Bl-!" Maka halted mid-sentence as her eyes widened, staring at Soul and again creeping him out before she hit her scrunched fist on the opposite open hand.

"…What's with that look?" Soul asked warily.

"BLACK STAR! Oh my gosh I need to ring him right away! I need to tell him what's happened! Can't believe I didn't ring sooner!" Maka exclaimed, quickly dashing towards her home phone and dialling his number.

"WHO RINGS UP THE GOD SO EARLY!" Black Star boomed before Maka cut him off talking further.

"Black Star I need you to come to my place straight away! Bring your weapon!" She glanced at Soul as he raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh and bring a pair of guy's clothes, I'll explain everything when you get here!" She pressed the end call button and sighed in content. Soul on the other hand was wondering what the heck was up with her sudden excited behaviour and for some reason she wanted the person she called to bring a weapon. He shifted uneasily on the couch.

"So…why is he bringing a weapon?" Soul decided to ask, she gave him a small smile.

"It's a surprise! I think?" Maka ended up questioning herself, but she had a feeling that the unidentified weapon who will soon be identified is friendly with Soul.

"And Soul, if someone with blue hair shows up let him in, I'm going to quickly have a shower before he gets here, mkay?" Maka called over her shoulder as she made her way to the bathroom.

Soul just nodded as he watched her go before he sighed, he needed coffee to keep up with Maka's changing mood swings. He wondered if wherever they were had a Deathbucks, he missed their Jumba coffee. He stretched his arms while he observed the living room until he heard a satisfying crack of his aching bones.

Several minutes later he heard loud knocking, assuming it was the person Maka was talking about he stood up from the couch making his way over before opening the door, slightly annoyed the person kept knocking.

_'Would it kill them to be quiet? Geez it only takes three knocks-'_ As he opened the door he quickly dodged a fist that was headed for his cranium, he glared at the hand while it retreated back to the person.

The electric blue haired boy stared like a fish out of water at the albino, clearly not expecting Soul to be opening the door. Soul was startled when Black Star dropped what he was holding to grab the doorknob to shut the door, still being outside. Soul stared quizzically at the door before it was wrenched open by the boy with an astonished expression.

"So I wasn't imagining it, there's a dude at Maka's apartment! Yohooo!" Black Star guffawed before picking up the stuff he had left abandoned on the floor before letting himself inside the apartment. Soul stepped aside as he watched Black Star deposit the stuff on the couch before he headed down the hallway. Soul watched as the bathroom door began to open, feeling a sense of dread.

Maka barely took a step out into the hallway before she was dragged into Black Star's one armed hugs, chortling while he gave her head a light tousle with his opposite hand. She squawked in surprise, trying to pry herself from him messing up her hair further. After a few seconds he let her go.

"Black Star what the heck!" She cried, levelling him with a frown, he gave her a wink and tapped his nose lightly.

"My Maka-Baka has become a woman! They grow up so fast! I will allow you to have my godly blessing!" He stated proudly, puffing his chest.

"WHAT!" Maka and Soul shouted, she hit Black Star with a Maka-Chop out of pure embarrassment. He was sent spiralling to the floor. Soul sympathised with the boy slightly, glad he wasn't at the end of that chop. Then remembered what he accused them of being.

No sympathy.

Maka huffed while Black Star staggered back up.

"NO! Don't jump to conclusions like that dummy! He's just a friend…well...more like an acquaintance at the moment but never mind that right now! I want you to do something for me, go get your weapon." Maka directed, pushing him lightly towards the living room.

"I don't know what's going on but fine." Black Star whined. He bent down to pluck the weapon off the cushion then gave Maka a 'Now what?' expression, Soul stared at the weapon before recognition sparked in his eyes. Maka pointed to the yellow scrolls still wrapped around the chain scythe's blade.

"Remove the yellow paper Black Star." Maka prompted, Black Star gave her a confused look but obliged, removing the wrapping fully.

"Okay then, now wha-" Black Star was cut off and dropped the weapon out of surprise when a bright yellow light engulfed the room, both himself and Maka shielded their eyes before the light dulled down. When Black Star opened his eyes he was face to face…

…with someone's chest.

A very womanly chest.

Maka watched in awe at the tall, pretty black haired woman in front of them, and in disbelief that Black Star was on the verge of what looked to be a nosebleed.

The new girl fluttered her eyes open before looking down at Black Star, she wasn't aware that she was so close and jumped back like a startled deer.

"O-oh my! I'm sorry!" She squeaked before she quickly bowed to him, Black Star snapped out of his staring but was still shocked to form any coherent words.

"Tsubaki?" Soul called, Tsubaki quickly whipped her head towards Soul and smiled brightly, tearing up slightly before bouncing up to him to envelop him into a quick hug. He returned it quickly before stepping back.

"Soul it's so good to see you! I can't believe I got to see anyone! It feels like forever that I've been human! Have you seen anyone else?" Tsubaki asked, before she noticed Maka as well, she looked at Maka and then at Black Star before she quickly bowed to both of them in apology.

"I'm sorry, I was focused on my friend! My name is Tsubaki and thank you for releasing me from those scrolls!" She said gratefully. Maka smiled back at her.

"Hi Tsubaki, I'm Maka and my friend over there is Black Star." Maka supplied.

Black Star regained his composure, a frown apparent on his face before raising up his hands to signal a time out.

"You're welcome and all but what exactly is going on here? Where did my weapon go?" Black Star demanded, Maka resisted the urge to face palm at his stupidity. Soul decided to answer for her.

"She is your weapon Black Star and if we all sit down I'll give you a brief description like I told Maka…."

* * *

><p>Maka had never seen Black Star so enthralled about someone's life before, usually by now he would have cut in comparing how amazing his life was. But he stayed mostly silent throughout the discussion, nodding every now and then for Soul to continue, Tsubaki shyly chimed in at times as well. Maka like Tsubaki, she seemed quite shy but was very soft spoken and polite however she seemed like a very nice person.<p>

Soul finished off the recap and Maka noticed Black Star was staring at the human weapons with a huge cocky grin before jumping up, putting one foot on Maka's coffee table while rising a fist in victory.

"That was awesome! Count me in, the great me approves of Tsubaki and…" Black Star trailed off as he didn't know the albino's name.

"Soul." He supplied cooly with a sharp tooth smirk, Black Star gave him a thumbs up before he swivelled to look at Maka.

"I told you those weapons were re-"

"MAKA-CHOP" Maka fumed as she knocked Black Star off the coffee table, she glared at the scuff marks his shoes made before directing the glare at him.

"That table is mahogany!" Maka seethed while he grumbled on the floor. Tsubaki stared at the scene in shock before she looked between Soul and Black Star, wondering what to do. Soul shrugged before he patted her shoulder.

"Maka seems to do that a lot." He stated. Tsubaki being too kind hearted for her good went to crouch near Black Star to help him up.

"Are you okay?" She asked sincerely, Black Star was eye level now, his cobalt eyes locking onto her indigo eyes. He nodded and quickly got to his feet, turning to look at something non important. Maka caught the faint red tint to his cheeks , her anger diffused but only to be replaced with the urge to laugh that her childhood friend might have a crush.

Soul decided to break up the brief silence by walking towards the clothes Black Star left on the couch, throwing them over his shoulder before slowly walking towards the bathroom.

"I'm gonna quickly get changed, then I think it's time we had some food. It's uncool to starve." Soul called before he stopped, he turned his head to see Maka looking at him.

"And Maka?" Soul asked.

"Yes?" Maka replied.

"You might want to get some clothes for Tsubaki so Black Star stops staring at her shredded clothing." Soul then proceeded into the bathroom to shut the door.

It was only then the three people in the living room payed attention to her ripped attire. It was not overly exposed but it the rips were showing more than she would of liked it too.

"Oh dear!" Tsubaki squawked , her face turning beet red. Maka patted her on the shoulder before she smiled at the fretting woman. Black Star coughed awkwardly before turning away at being caught by Soul.

"Come on Tsubaki, my room is this way, let's try to find something that you can wear…" Maka trailed off before looking at the girl again. "Though I don't think I have a shirt that could fit your…chest." Maka pouted slightly out of envy, Tsubaki nodded her head in understanding before she felt something drop into her hands.

Tsubaki looked down to notice Black Star's jacket was now in her hands, she smiled brightly in gratitude at him before following Maka into her room.

A few minutes later everyone was back in the living room. Maka smiled in victory she was able to find something Tsubaki could wear. Soul's stomach broke the silence, he gave them a lazy grin.

"Well boy and gals, I think it's time for some food."

They nodded in agreement as they proceeded out of the apartment towards their next destination.

Never noticing the shadow on the apartment's rooftop.

* * *

><p>Soul gave a content sigh as he sipped his Jumba coffee, the liquid was sorely missed and he was glad to have been reunited with the delicious beverage. They sat in a cosy booth at the back, away from the bustling crowd so they could enjoy their breakfast in peace and talk without being overheard. Black Star was devouring his sixth bagel while Tsubaki and Maka were slowly eating their croissants. Maka looked contemplative before she settled her eyes on Soul.<p>

"So Soul…what's the plan now? What are you going to do?" Maka prompted, Tsubaki and Black Star also looked to him to see him sigh into his cup before looking pensive.

"Well I want to find out what the hell happened of course, I would like to return to DC to see if there is anyone left, and any witches I can beat some information out of. But first…which state are we in?" He asked.

"Oklahoma." Black Star answered, now full of food. "The problem is, how we're gonna get there. Maka and I don't have rides." He finished flatly. Maka nodded in thought before she remembered something else.

"I might know someone that could help us, it's a bit of a walk so hope you don't mind." Maka said, she stood up and the rest followed her towards Alabaster Drive.

* * *

><p>As they neared the mansion Maka couldn't help but feeled awed yet again at its beauty. She could see that Black Star and Tsubaki were amazed at the house as well. Though she noticed Soul was not interested while he walked behind her, he had his hands tucked into his jeans pockets and slouched while he walked.<p>

Reaching the door Maka knocked quickly wondering if Patty would answer the door again. She smiled at the thought of the rambunctious girl. A few minutes later she was surprised that she was met with golden eyes instead. Maka waved, he nodded in return before noticing the other people beside her. A small smile crept onto his lips.

"Good morning Maka, it is delightful that you have returned, I see that you have brought your friends as I had hoped. The more the merrier as they say, do come in everyone. I'm sure we have much to discuss." Kidd said, ushering them all inside as he directed them towards his office. Soul looked around warily before he tapped Maka's shoulder as they continued walking.

"Hey, who is this guy? He seemed to know who we are." Soul stated as they rounded the last corner. Maka nodded as Kidd open the doors.

"Well Soul it's because he also has weapons somewhere-"

"SOUL~!"

"TSUBAKI!"

Maka was cut off as she saw two blonde blurs dash past her towards Soul and Tsubaki. She turned to see Liz hugging Tsubaki like they were long lost friends, Liz bombarded her with 'I missed you' and questions. While Patty had practically tackled Soul to the floor, nuzzling the top of his head like a cat, chuckling at his attempt to noogie her. Black Star laughed at their display, they reminded him of siblings.

It then dawned on Maka that the twins were the weapons, she mentally hit herself that she didn't figure that out on the way to the mansion. She turned towards Kidd who smiled politely at her.

"It's endearing to watch lost friends find each other again, it touches the soul." Kidd commented, Maka nodded then remembered what she came there for.

"Kidd, I know this might seem a little rude but we were wondering if you could help us. See Soul wants to go to DC to dig up some answers and we don't have any means of getting there." Maka said, he nodded in understanding at her predicament.

"Say no more Maka, I'm sure Liz and Patty would want to find answers as well and where they go I go, I'd be more than happy that we join you. I'll provide a car of course." Kidd stated, Maka smiled brightly at him with excitement that their adventure would begin soon.

"Of course you can join us!" She exclaimed, grasping both his hands to shake them.

"Liz? What's wrong?" Tsubaki's worried voice cut in, garnering everyone's attention. Liz stood rigid as if she was frozen before looking out towards the trees outside the windows, she glared meaningfully into it.

"Kidd, there's something out there." She whispered, Kidd nodded to her before he held out his hands. Patty and Liz walked towards Kidd before they began to flash.

Before Maka could blink Kidd was now holding twin guns in each of his hands, he looked towards the others with a determined grin.

"It seems we have an unwelcome guest."

-x- TBC –x-

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><p>AN: And there you have it, hopefully you aren't too disappointed. xD I tried to make it long. ;u;

Feel free to review and leave your feedback! See you in the next chapter!

-KC


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Hello everyone, I'm sorry for the late update. Time slips by quickly! But I'll try to get quicker with these when I find the spare time.

And thank you reviewers for your feedback! I hope you can continue to enjoy this story. c:

So without further ado….

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><p><strong>Chapter Eight<strong>

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><p>The room was thick with tension as Kidd and the Thompson sisters now turned twin pistols walked purposely towards the nearest window overlooking the forest not so far away, his golden orbs glared into it. Maka tried to peer into the forest herself but could not feel or see anything from where she was standing. <p>

"Can you see it yet?" Maka asked Kidd, he shook his head as he positioned himself in a battle stance. 

"Negarinno Maka!" Patty's voice rang from Kidd's right pistol, she then proceeded to giggle softly until Liz told her to be quiet so she could concentrate on the location of the monster. 

The only sign that something was there was the haste of birds that emptied the trees to get as much distance away as possible, their terrified squawks and the constant rustling did not go unnoticed . A knot formed in her stomach as she wondered if it was the monster that chased her from before, none too happy that its disappearance wasn't permanent. 

Black Star pushed off the wall he was leaning against to look at Soul, Maka and Tsubaki and was quite annoyed with their nervous expressions. 

"So whatever or whoever is in that forest might jump out to come and kill us or something? So what! Kidd looks like he knows what he's doing! I say why not help out so we can whoop its ass!" Black Star exclaimed determinedly, Maka looked at him exasperatedly before protesting. 

"Black Star are you insane! If it's what I think it is it's huge-" She was cut off when she heard Kidd hurl open the window. 

"It's here!" Kidd shouted over his shoulder and without another second passing he jumped out of the window. The people who remained in the room gave a shocked yell of his name before they rushed to the window, they all looked down quickly to notice that Kidd was not down below but running towards the exact same monster that went after Maka not so long ago. Maka's eyes widened as she noticed something different about the black monster. 

It was bigger. 

Most of its features were the same albeit bulkier, the claws were much larger and its jaw was more elongated which reminded her of an alligator. It massive hulk of a form neared towards Kidd slowly but with deliberate purpose as it swung its right arm towards the ground like a scythe. Kidd narrowly dodged it by jumping backwards, he shot towards the monsters neck and was met with an angry growl followed by another quick swipe of its arm. Black Star regarded the monster with an icy glare, still remaining unperturbed he looked over towards Tsubaki and held out his hand. 

"Tsubaki, you should change into your weapon form so we can help Kidd kill that thing!" 

Tsubaki glanced at his open hand and bit her lip gently as she shifted her weight before replying. 

The monster growled again in the distance, shots fired shortly after. 

"B-But Black Star, that is a kishin! You don't know how to fight one of those!" She nervously squeaked. Black Star scoffed as he motioned his hand for her to do what he asked regardless. 

"What's so hard about swinging a weapon? As long as we're the ones doing the damage we'll be fine now transform!" He barked, she paused briefly then reluctantly obliged. Tsubaki was quickly engulfed in light before the young woman was now a large shruiken. Black Star grabbed her mid-air before he looked over her weapon's appearance. 

"When you were at my house and switching to different weapons…was that my imagination or can you actually change to different weapons? Coz if you can switch to a sword or something that would be sweet." Black Star heard her soft voice state an affirmative to him before transforming into a katana, all the while never leaving his hand. He turned to Maka and Soul and gave them a thumbs up before also jumping out of the window to join Kidd. Maka felt like face palming. 

"That idiot is going to get himself killed!" She snapped. 

"Probably." Soul stated flatly. 

Maka looked over at Soul to notice he had an angry frown marring his face, his fists clenched firmly and seemed to be ready to join. 

"Did you want to join in on the fighting Soul?" Maka questioned, his jaw tightened before looking over at the fight, his fists twitching in anticipation. Kidd had managed to put quite a number of bullet wounds into the kishin, Black Star was trying to as well but missed almost every time. He sighed before turning towards her. 

"Well since I am a weapon it's usually better for my meister to handle me but since he's not around I guess I could work on my solo skills." He smirked while Maka noted that tidbit of information before replying. 

"Can't I be your meister? Black Star didn't seem to have any troubles handling Tsubaki." Maka asked. Soul gave a light snort before he lightly ruffled her hair to her annoyance. 

"I doubt it short stuff, no offence but by the looks of you, you don't seem to be adept at fighting and I know you haven't used me as a weapon previously so it might be more dangerous for you to actually fight. So stay here okay? I'll kick this guy's ass in no time." Soul stated cockily, baring her with his shark tooth grin before he too leapt out of the window. 

"Soul!" Maka quickly yelled before he got too far, he turned to look up at her in question. 

"Be careful!" She demanded with a huff, he flashed her another grin giving her a two finger salute before reaching to aid the other males. 

Maka watched the fight intently, amazed at all that was enfolding right before her eyes. Kidd, judging by his perfectly executed shots was more experienced in warding off the kishin than he stated. Kidd jumped onto the kishins knee before launching himself up again to fire into its neck. Black Star shouted as he rushed head on into kishin, quickly slashing one of its legs. It gave a howl and swatted Black Star a few meters away, Maka gasp out of shock before she saw him jumping back to his feet moments later. 

_'I give him points for his stubbornness….or his stupidity.'_ Maka mused to herself, she then turned her attention onto Soul. She was surprised to see his right arm was now the scythe blade and was doing quite a number on the kishins chest. His eyes burned in resolve, skilfully dodging attacks and the occasional Black Star who wasn't watching his surroundings. Maka could hear Tsubaki's shouts of warning from where she was. Tsubaki was only met with his chortling and the brief 'Yahoo's'. 

After a while the Kishin looked significantly exhausted, as did the three males. Kidd straightened up to brush dirt off his shoulder, giving a light cough afterwards. 

"Well gentleman I think it is time we put an end to this. Could you be dears and distract it for me?" Kidd said lowly so Soul and Black Star could hear him. Both visibly frowned at being called dears but they nodded at the request and obliged. Kidd grinned before running behind the demon as it was too distracted with the frontal assault. With deft skill he ran up the back of the monster before reaching its shoulders, crouching down quickly to regain his balance he then launched off the shoulder with a flip and shot rapidly into the kishin. Its howls of atrocious pain his signal that he was putting an end to this creature was music to his ears as he landed facing towards the mansion. Maka quickly ran out to join them. 

The rest of the group stood amazed and relieved, Tsubaki and the sisters happily returning back to their previous forms. 

"Woo! Whooped em good didn't we sis?" Patty shouted, pointing and guffawing at the kishin. 

Kidd turned around to face the kishin and marvel at his precision skills, the bullets lined from its stomach upwards into the shoulders. His smile was wiped off his face when he saw one bullet hole was slightly higher and off centre from the others. 

"I am a failure!" Kidd sobbed before crouching down to curse himself. Liz and Patty came to his aid by placing one hand on each of his shoulders and promptly dragged him back inside to cheer up with his symmetrical house. Liz's unoccupied hand was pinching the bridge of her nose the entire time while Patty babbled on about food. 

Tsubaki was eyeing over Black Star for any serious harm but he waved her off as he only had a few scratches, his macho side taking over. 

"Nobody could wound the great Black Star!" He chortled. Soul walked over to him and smirked. 

"You were pretty cool out there man." Soul said, giving Black Star a high five which Black Star reciprocated wholeheartedly. 

Maka caught up to Soul now with a small smile, he smirked back at her. 

"You guys were amazing! Wish I could have done something to help, I felt pretty useless in there." Maka confessed, he pat her shoulder before he hummed in musing, he then looked down at her with another smirk. 

"You really want to get down and gritty with fighting? This kishin was a cakewalk to the ones we'll encounter if we continue to DC." Soul asked. 

"Of course, I want to help out and be strong." Maka stated. 

"Cool, then how about we train you to be a meister hmm? I know what I said before but was kind of in a rush to help out and since that kishin is long gone now might as well give it a shot." He finished, her smile grew wider. 

"Awesome!" Maka squealed. 

"I don't know about you guys but I'm starved! I think the great Black Star deserves a burger!" Black Star cut in while he stretched. 

So after checking on Kidd everyone bid their goodbyes, Black Star and Tsubaki left towards his favourite burger place while Maka and Soul decided to head home. Maka was quite upbeat while they were walking. 

A couple of weeks ago she wouldn't of dreamed of such a things happening with her life and now weapons that were humans and a now dead kishin. She wondered what more is there in store for their group. 

Soul's stomach growled and shortly after hers did as well which reminded her to buy some groceries. They made it home with quite a number of grocery bags, Soul struggling slightly as he made his way up the stairs, the bags obscuring his vision as he prayed not to misjudge a step. Maka having trouble of her own already made it towards the door. 

Instead of putting the bags down she was determined to juggle the bags around to find her house keys, one of the bags was beginning to tip towards the door so she quickly jolted forward to try and catch it before she noticed... 

The door was already open. 

She frowned slightly, looking over towards Soul slowly making his way over. 

'_I hope this isn't a kishin who knows how to operate doors.'_ She thought to herself. Maka took a deep breath and entered the apartment. It was quite dark inside but she could still see it… 

Lit candles. 

The candles were on the table that now seems to be decorated quite nicely, a very intimate setting which could only mean one thing. 

"Oh no…" Maka quietly whispered, a sense of dread washed over her like a tidal wave. 

She could see a small light in the kitchen, the shadow of the person in the kitchen was drawing near and she held her breath, hoping it wasn't him. 

But lo and behold, who else would saunter his way out of her kitchen holding a freshly cooked roast… 

In a pink apron no less. 

Her Papa. 

"Hello my darling angel Maka! I'm here for our deal, instead of eating out I thought a lovely dinner for just the two of us!" Spirit cooed, swaying his hips. Maka resisted the urge to throw up from his sickeningly sweet gestures. She was brought out of her nausea when she heard Soul's footsteps reaching the door. 

Nevermind, nausea brought back even more as she dreads Spirit's reaction. 

Soul walked in but stopped as it was pretty dark, he sighed though out of exhaustion from the heavy shopping bags before he spoke. 

"Geez that was a workout, but not as bad as the workout we're gonna be doing tomorrow Maka. I expect you to give it your all." Soul breathed out. 

Suddenly the lights were on and the shopping bag covering his face was yanked faster than he processed, he was startled to find green eyes narrowing down at him with promises of death. 

But this time the person had red hair. 

So less of a threat than if it was Maka. 

"You will WHAT with my daughter?" Spirit seethed, his features contorted to the epitome of rage that it almost looked comical. Maka face palmed as Soul put down the grocery bags to level the red head with a frown. Maka walked in between them, glaring at her papa while blocking his view of Soul. 

"Papa calm down. This is Soul, my roommate-" She could see he was about to explode over that but her glare told him to be quiet. Soul was impressed with the amount of power she had over her dad while she continued. "-AND when he said workout what he meant was...jogging. You will not be mean to him or so help me…" Maka trailed off meaningfully as she raised her hand slightly, Spirit got the message. Spirit hmpfed childishly but kept quiet. 

"Good, now if you'll excuse us we need to put our groceries away." She finished while she picked up her grocery bags and nodded for Soul to follow her. He did not get past Spirit though a hand gripped his bicep, he levelled Spirit with an annoyed stare. Spirit took a deep breath. 

"Listen Soup, you do anything to my precious baby angel and I will make it my duty to end you. You got that pal?" Sprit spat, but was by no means a threat to Soul and did not bother to correct the incorrect name. Spirit raised his fingers to point at his eyes before shoving them in Soul's face. 

And that's all it took for Maka to warrant her Papa a Maka-Chop him with French bread. Promptly breaking the French bread into many pieces which scattered over the floor. Soul viewed at the scene in awe at her strength; she might be able to do this training after all. She looked at her unconscious papa with a huff, eying the destroyed bread. 

"Darn. Well he already made us food so let's eat."

* * *

><p>-x- TBC –x-<p>

A/N: And thus another chapter, I'm sorry this took me so long but I hope you liked it ;u;

Feel free to review and leave your feedback as it would be greatly appreciated!

See you in the next chapter!

-KC


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Hello everyone. Thought it would be time for another update before I get forgetful. Thank you all for your lovely reviews and feedback and being patient with me.

So without further ado….

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Nine<strong>

* * *

><p>"For the last time Soul, I'm going to school." Maka stated to Soul for what seemed like the tenth time that morning while eating her toast. Soul rolled his eyes as he leaned against the door frame of the kitchen before trying to talk some sense into her. <p>

"I know you being a bookworm and all compels you to go learn but if you want to start training with me like you said you would a few days ago then you have to make up your mind about your priorities. If we head to DC there will be no pausing battles to do essays, you'd be dead." Soul said matter-of-factly. Maka took an angry bite of her toast, chewing thoughtfully as she mulled over her options, he did raise a valid point. On the other hand however…she really did want to do her homework. She leveled him with a questioning stare. 

"Well Soul, how quickly do you want to rush to DC?" Maka asked. 

"As soon as you're competent enough with your training, which will hopefully be in a few weeks or less, I really want to get to DC and find out what the hell happened…" He trailed off, scratching his cheek before continuing. "…and to see who else survived." 

Maka observed his appearance; his usual cool visage was replaced with a quite unexpected vulnerability, her anger dissipated as she took into account of his circumstances. He had mentioned his plans before but never in such a sombre tone. She noticed his eyes became slightly dull and glazed over, appearing to be deep in thought of a memory. She took a sip of orange juice before responding. 

"Who did you leave behind?" Maka asked softly. Soul snapped out of his recollection while he shifted his weight, he approached the table and dropped down on the nearest chair. He tousled his hair, which she has noticed is a nervous habit of his, before he replied. 

"More like they left me." He replied quietly, not meeting her eyes. 

"Who left you?" Maka asked, sadness laced her tone as she knew she was treading into personal territory, though for a split second she hoped he didn't leave behind a girl. That thought was quickly abolished. 

"My brother, Wes, who was also my meister." Soul finished. Maka stared at him in shock, his answer was not what she expected, a family member left behind would leave a wound on any heart. He sighed heavily. 

"Mind you that we were in the war zone, he was one of the remaining technicians that lead the rest of the weapons to the laboratory to get sealed, he was wounded from the battle and that was the last I saw of him." 

"What about your other family?" 

"He was my only family, parents died a long time ago. I know three years is a pretty long time if a city had been under assault but the other reason I want to go to DC is to try and find where he is, he might be long gone or dead. I dunno…" He trailed off as he frowned, obviously not wanting to think the worst of the scenario. 

"I'm sorry if I brought up a subject you didn't want to mention…" Maka quickly interjected, hoping she didn't offend him by asking a personal question. He waved his hand dismissively to qualm her fears. 

"Nah it's cool Maka, I probably would of told you about Wes later on anyway." Soul said with a shrug. He placed an elbow onto the table to cradle his head in his hand while he decided to divert his ruby eyes to her emerald ones. 

"I see, well I promise you Soul that we will find your brother but for the time being I will need to go to class, and when I get back we'll start training okay?" Maka promised as she rose from her chair to collect her books to shove into her backpack then proceeded to put on her shoes. 

"Are you seriously still going to class?" He asked exasperatedly. Soul thought for sure that the tidbit of his personal life would have subdued her want to go to school. 

"Yes, but I shouldn't take too long Soul." Maka replied with a small smile aimed his way while she headed towards the door. Soul frowned slightly before standing from his chair towards her. 

"Do you want me to go with you?" He called out as she was halfway out of the apartment door. 

"What?" She asked quizzically. 

"To class." He clarified. 

"So you can drag me back here? Do you miss me already?" She asked with a teasing smile. He scoffed at the accusation. 

"No. But it could be dangerous for you to go alone, another kishin might be out lurking nearby just waiting to attack you." Soul reasoned as he was speaking from experience. There is never just one kishin, and even though they haven't seen any new sightings that doesn't mean that they aren't hiding in wait. 

"Thanks for the concern but I'll be alright, I doubt they'd try anything in broad daylight, so you stay here. Take a nap or something, I'll be gone for two hours then I'll come straight back here. Mkay?" Maka promised. 

"Righto." 

"Okay then, guess I better head off now, see you soon Soul." She called out with a small wave before exiting the apartment. 

As the door shut behind Maka, the house was then enveloped with silence, leaving Soul and his thoughts alone in the quiet apartment. 

'_I guess a nap does sound good though.'_He decided as he made his way to the couch. 

* * *

><p>Maka made her way onto the campus grounds towards her class she was heavy with thought. To be honest with herself she really did want to help him with his goal and as much as she would have previously sworn against anything about education, would she drop college to help a new friend that she had known for only a short matter of time? <p>

At the end of 's tutorial she had come up with the answer. 

A vast majority of the students exited the tutorial while Maka stayed behind to approach Mr. Stein while he was seated at his desk taking a long draw of his cigarette. His eyes rested on her before he exhaled a plume of smoke. 

"Why hello Maka, something the matter? You didn't seem too focused on my lesson today." 

"Well about that actually. You see…something important in my life has come up and it's going to take a while to fix you see so I don't know if I'd be able to come to class because I don't know if I'll be returning here for some time." 

"Oh? More valuable than your education? Does Spirit know? He'd be mighty furious if he found you of all people dropping out of college." 

"He doesn't know too much in the specifics but it really is an important matter. Maybe when I return I might be able to try again." 

"Well if you return and ready to get back into studying I'd be more than happy to teach you again, though I might add more dissection pracs for punishment."

"Are you kidding? That's fine with me! Heck, you could dissect me if you want!" 

"Really?" Stein asked hopefully. He leaned back on his chair, the light from above his desk glared down on his glasses, hiding his eyes from view. "I never did get to finish dissecting a human before." 

"No." Maka said flatly, crossing her arms for emphasis. 

"Darn, well I guess this is goodbye Miss Albarn. Don't worry about the paperwork, I'll see if I can get you an exemption or something. Good luck with everything." Stein farewelled with a lazy wave as he returned his cigarette to his mouth. 

"Thank you, goodbye Mr. Stein." Maka returned the farewell as she exited the room to return home. 

* * *

><p><strong><strong>

**Flashback**

__

_It was a dark day indeed. Soul could still remember looking up at the moon laughing down at them, it's mouth dripping with blood as it watched the horrible scene of Death City under attack. The city had exploded into an all-out frenzy, witches attacking from all sides and it was a struggle to defend the residents let alone the technicians and weapons. Panicked shouts reigned throughout the night._

_"The witches captured eight more weapons, they were last seen on the west side of the city!"_

_"Another wave of witches approaching!"_

_"Where the hell is our backup?"_

_"There's no more backup! We're the last ones!"_

_"We need to hold our ground people! Don't let them get the upper hand! Fight!" A familiar voice urged the others to continue to battle._

_Soul remembers the last person all too well. Wes was nearly an exact replica of Soul, albeit older and had the appearance of a sophisticated gentleman. Wes was also quite skilled in fighting and was among the talented to have been the top of his class. Though Soul was the all-around slacker, but he did work hard in fighting as well._

_It took some for Soul to find a meister because a lot of people refused to put up with his attitude._

_Of course a brother could though._

_As the witches onslaught continued the brothers remained undeterred but Soul could see after fighting for so long that Wes was getting tired. Soul watched from inside the scythe blade in his weapon form as Wes deflected another tadpole bomb away from the remaining survivors. He heard the witch 'tsk' as she watched from her levitating tadpole a few meters up in the sky. Her frog face hat reflecting her growing anger as her bomb was yet again deflected but she continued._

_"We need to retreat Wes, our numbers are dwindling and they keep increasing!" A guy by the name of Oxford shouted. The frog witch above them glanced down at them briefly before stopping her attack, instead she looked to the alleyway beside the technicians to see a slithering arrow near towards them._

_"You should give up now technicians! Give us your weapons!" The frog witch cackled, the technicians below directed all their fury towards her, Wes took a step forward and reared Soul back in preparation to strike._

_"And why the hell should we do that you piece of filth!?" Wes spat towards her. He began running closer to her, promises of death lit fiercely in his eyes._

_The frog witches' smile grew as he continued closer to her._

_And then it happened._

_A black arrow pierced through Wes' right shoulder, the force of that alone sent him tumbling towards the floor as he skidded face first into the cobblestone of the road._

_"Wes!" Soul shouted as he transformed back to a human. He rushed to his brother side to quickly help him up. Wes' shoulder wound was bleeding profusely however he tried to swat Soul away. Wes stood up stiffly as he turned towards the remaining survivors. All were shocked that he was wounded. As Wes looked back to the source of the arrow he saw the silhouette of a woman with glowing yellow eyes, the eyes that belonged to one of the most deadliest witches in all of Death City…_

_Medusa._

_'I need to get Soul to safety.' Wes thought frantically._

_"Wes!?" Soul called again, beginning to panic that his brother was ignoring his wound as it continued to bleed._

_"I'm fine!" Wes snapped quietly to Soul while he turned towards the rest of his group before continuing. "Everyone retreat now! That's an order! All technicians are to escort any remaining weapons to the rendezvous point. Go!" He shouted. They nodded and began to flee inside the stronghold they had been barricading. Wes turned to Soul and held out his hand._

_"Soul get in your weapon form now." Wes ordered, Soul glared at him._

_"No way! You need help-" Soul was interjected by his brother._

_"Do as I say and get back into your weapon form, you know the fallback plan and you need to be sealed for your own protection!" Wes exclaimed._

_"But what about you?" Soul asked worriedly._

_"We'll fend them off now transform!"_

_Soul reluctantly changed back to his scythe form as Wes quickly snatched the scythe handle and dashed inside._

_On their way to the laboratory Soul could hear the tadpoles go off at the entrance as Wes sprinted. The blood from his shoulder had made a long stain down Wes shirt and now pants while his hold on Soul was clammy._

_They made it to the laboratory and Soul was quickly snatched out of Wes' hands into the hands of Joe as he brought out the witch warding scrolls. Soul glanced over to his brother who was hovering over them, he looked straight into the scythe blade at Soul._

_"You're gonna be sealed now Soul, you might be in there a little while but rest assured that no witch can touch you. I'll be gone for a little bit but I'll come back to get you okay?" Wes assured._

_Before Soul could reply Joe slapped on the first scroll and everything went black._

**End Flashback**

* * *

><p>Soul jolted awake, his breathing labored as he recalled the last moments before he was sealed away in his weapon form. A slight sweat covered his forehead and hands while he tried to will away the memories. He refused for his past to ruin his plans now as he laid back down onto the couch. Soul wiped the sweat from his forehead as he heard footsteps approach the door. <p>

Soul quickly willed himself to calm down as he heard the turning of the keys in the door. Maka appeared in the apartment shortly after, her green eyes quickly searching for him. Finding her target she smiled at him while she deposited her bag on the floor beside the couch. She stood looking over him as he faced upwards at her. 

"Hey Soul, you look like you didn't sleep well. But about that talk we had this morning, I decided to put a hold on my classes so you can train me, so when can we begin?" Maka asked hopefully. 

"Now." 

* * *

><p>"Excuse me Ma'am..." Came the nervous voice of a shrouded servant. <p>

"How many times do I have to tell you it's Medusa? Never mind, out with it, what do you have to report." Medusa snapped as she glared into the computer screen before her, her hands typing erratically but with precision on the keyboard. 

"I've come here to report a kishin death." The servant stammered out. Medusa paused her typing as her curiosity was piqued. 

"Oh? And what was the cause?" She asked sweetly, but all know too well her sweet words were venomous. 

"It was from human weapons." 

"How wonderful, give me the location." 

"Oklahoma" 

* * *

><p>-x- TBC –x-<p>

A/N: Sorry it took so long _

Feel free to review and leave your feedback as it would be greatly appreciated!

See you in the next chapter!

-KC


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Hello everyone. I decided to treat you guys with a quick(ish) update to thank you for bearing with me and leaving me lovely reviews! Keep on being awesome! And it's also quite long so yay! Hope you like it! 

So without further ado…. 

* * *

><p>Chapter Ten <p>

* * *

><p>The training didn't start as smoothly as Maka had anticipated… <p>

"Are you even trying?" Soul asked in a snide manner as she missed yet another target. They were training in Black Star's backyard that was littered with training objects. They had been outside for just over an hour but so far it was to no avail, and it was frankly getting on Maka's nerves. 

"Of course I'm trying! But I can't help it that you're so heavy!" Maka huffed. 

"Are you calling me fat!?" Soul accused, the eye on his weapon form glared up at her. 

"No I said heavy!" She shot back while rolling her eyes. 

"But that gives the assumption that I am weighty-" 

"Semantics!" Maka snapped as she tried to swing him down onto another target but was not able to cut it deeply. She grunted as she reared him back to strike again, this time she managed to slice the arm off the target as it tumbled to the ground. It took more effort than she would like to admit however she was still happy with the result. 

"Finally!" Maka shouted triumphantly, raising her fists and Soul into the air in victory. 

"Don't celebrate too soon, that was just one successful attack out of many failures. The kishin aren't going to stand there all day while they wait for you to cut them." Soul stated matter-of-factly. 

A few seconds later Soul found himself hitting the ground with a loud clatter of metal. He lit up briefly before returning to his human form, dusting his jacket off while he glared at her retreating form. 

"Oi." Soul called as he quickly caught up to her and grabbed her arm before she went inside Black Star's home. Maka huffed before turning to face him with a frown but he was unperturbed. 

"It's not cool of you to drop me like that ya know." Soul complained. 

"You were being a jerk." Maka huffed as she turned away from him, his grip on her arm still remained. 

"No, I was being realistic. I'm not trying to be a jerk." He explained. She shrugged his grip from her arm and sighed. She got tired of squabbling over trivial things with Soul but it seems he knew all the right things to say to make her annoyed. Maka wondered sometimes if he did it on purpose just to poke fun. 

"I'm trying my best and I finally get one right and you criticise me. I'm sorry I can't just pick you up and suddenly become a prodigy meister. Even if it's just one out of many failures you should be happy like I am that I actually hit something, because that's how I'm seeing it as, improvement." Maka clarified. 

He honestly didn't see it like that and he felt pretty uncool that he should have been encouraging her instead of making quips of her skills, or lack thereof. 

"Alright, alright. I'm sorry about that. I should have seen it from your point of view. It is cool that you were able to hit it, all we need to do is keep on practicing and I'm sure you can do it." 

"Hey you two, lunch is ready. Get your butts in here!" Patty called out from the kitchen window with a giggle. 

They gathered into the small lounge room which Maka was relieved that it wasn't a pigsty anymore. Heck, Maka was impressed she could see the floor now. Ever since Tsubaki began residing in Black Star's home she had made it her duty to keep the place clean and presentable, since she did not have any money she made it up to him by doing so. Black Star however insisted she did not owe him anything. 

'_Tell you what though, Tsubaki knows how to cook!'_ Maka thought wistfully as she took a bite from an onigiri, one of the many delightful snacks Tsubaki prepared. Patty, Black Star and Soul were all but devouring anything in sight with vigour. Kidd was quite subdued as he ate his symmetrical sandwich. Liz was watching him eat in scrutiny then decided to distract herself by striking up a conversation with Maka, turning to face Maka with a smile she began. 

"So Maka how's the training going? Is Soul giving you a hard time?" Liz asked while taking a small bite out of her food. Soul ignored her as he kept eating. 

"Training is going pretty slow but I just have to keep trying I guess. And Soul…has his moments." Maka said with a small smile. 

"Have you tried matching your soul's wavelength yet?" Kidd asked. 

"Huh?" Black Star and Maka replied. 

"Oh? You don't know? I'm surprised Soul and Tsubaki hadn't informed you both yet." Kidd said, taking a sip of his tea. 

"I-I tried to tell Black Star but I don't think I explained it so well…" Tsubaki said shyly, bowing her head. 

Maka glanced towards Soul and not even looking at her he already knew the look she was giving him, her green eyes bored into his with the unspoken question 'why didn't you tell me?' 

"I was going to get to it after you improved on your combat skills." Soul assured her. 

"Well, if you don't mind Soul and Tsubaki I'd be more than happy to explain for Maka and Black Star." Kidd offered, always a gentleman. 

"Try to keep it simple Kidd." Liz warned. Kidd does have an awful habit of getting into so much detail in explaining that he actually confuses people further because they cannot keep up with his long-winded lectures. 

"Alright then let's begin," Kidd cleared his throat before continuing. "Every single person on this planet, as well as witches and kishin have souls.A sound soul dwells in a sound mind and a sound body. Normal people such as yourselves have human souls, this also includes weapons. A person with a pure soul is healthy and creates a balance for oneself. Witches are naturally born with magic so their souls are naturally distinguishable from humans. Kishins on the other hand are abominations, caused by human souls going astray from the balance. They originally were humans or even the occasional witch that sought more power from their blood lust and do the unthinkable, devouring other souls so that they can get stronger. The more souls they devour the quicker they lose their sense of normality and slip into the madness, becoming killing machines." 

"Can you skip the story and get to the wavelength thingy? The great me wants to learn a new skill." Black Star complained as he gestured Kidd to skip to the good part. Kidd narrowed his golden eyes down towards Black Star, annoyed that he was interrupted. 

"I thought that information was important." Maka said, she was quite intrigued with how they used souls, it was unlike anything she had ever learnt and was wanting to comprehend the concept. Kidd smiled. 

"Why thank you Maka. Now about the soul wavelengths, basically it's trying to match your soul with another. This is done by connecting souls and sending power back and forth between each other, enhancing the power, and finally releasing a strong attack, otherwise stronger than if you were just using a regular weapon. That is why DC valued their meister-weapon teams in such high regard." Kidd finished his explanation and was glad to see at least Maka paid so much attention. 

"But how can you start the process? Do we have to meditate or something?" Maka asked, it seemed confusing to try and start such a task when she had no previous experience in doing anything like this before. 

"In a way, you have to be on each other's…wavelength." Kidd said, a small smile curled on his lips as he made a poor joke. 

"That pun was uncool and you should feel bad for saying it." Soul sighed out. 

"My apologies, but let's have a practice at this shall we? Maka sit with Soul, Black Star sit with Tsubaki, so we can begin." Kidd instructed. 

They did as they were told, Maka kneeled facing Soul. As she stared at him she felt a bit nervous that he was staring back at her for so long. Was this how it works? She had no idea. Her face was feeling warm when he shot her a smirk. She glanced towards Black Star and Tsubaki briefly and noticed Black Star was getting red himself, his eye height was the exact position as Tsubaki's chest area. To his credit he was trying to focus on her face, Tsubaki was smiling down at him. 

"Yay ships!" Patty cooed, confusing everyone while she quietly giggled to herself on the couch, amused by her own thoughts. 

"Shush Patty." Liz chastised. 

"Now I want you both to focus on you're the person in front of you, ignore everything apart from my instructions. Black Star focus on Tsubaki's face not her chest!" Kidd reprimanded. At being caught Black Star coughed loudly before averting his eyes back towards Tsubaki's. Kidd continued, "I think it will be better if you all closed your eyes. Focus on each other's breathing, try to feel the energy between you. A soul radiates energy on not only a spiritual level but on a physical level." 

'_I have no idea how to do this, I feel like I'm in a yoga class. No Maka focus! I have to keep trying.'_

"You might not be able to distinguish it yet but keep focused. It might not come quickly but if you have a bond with another person it can come more naturally than you think." 

Maka took a deep breath to concentrate, willing herself to muster up any shreds of spirituality she could find. What was she supposed to feel she wondered, how would she know if she achieved anything? Would Soul be trying to reach her too? That thought gave her a warm feeling. 

A few minutes later she was distracted from her concentration by a flickering light. She fluttered her eyes open to find the source of the light. Maka was shocked to find it was originating from Tsubaki and Black Star. Shortly after it died down and both Black Star and Tsubaki opened their eyes. Black Star grinned triumphantly before jumping quickly to his feet. 

"Yahoo we're done!" Black Star cheered, punching the air in victory. Tsubaki smiled and clapped quietly. 

"Great job Black Star." Tsubaki congratulated. 

"What!?" Maka sputtered, shock was etched on her features as her eyes darted between Black Star and then to Soul. Her eyebrows furrowed together. What was she doing wrong? Did she miss something? 

"I knew the great me could do this task without breaking a sweat!" Black Star boasted cockily while he heard praise from Kidd and Liz. 

"But How? How did he do it so quickly?" Maka asked Soul. He could tell she was shocked that Black Star achieved soul wavelength before them, heck he bet she was quite jealous too but by the looks of her he did not want to upset her any further so he tried to reason with logic. He shrugged his shoulders while looking at her. 

"It's probably because Tsubaki is versatile, she caters for others, always putting them above her. After all, you would have to have the patience of a saint to put up with his attitude." Soul said, jerking his thumb towards Black Star. Black Star was bending backwards to an odd angle while he laughed. Maka agreed with his sentiment but she was still confused. 

"Then why can't we match? I'm not obnoxious like he is." Maka pouted, scrunching her hands into her pants. 

"Well…" Soul trailed off with a joking smirk. However, truth be told she did have a nasty temper but he decided to be quiet for the sake of his cranium. It had suffered much abuse since living with Maka. 

She levelled him with fake glare and stuck out her tongue before trying to focus again, more determined than before to reach a connection. 

"Want to try again Soul?" 

"Sure." 

'_I will match your wavelength Soul.'_

* * *

><p>Several hours later Maka and Soul were still seated in the lounge room as she tried to connect with Soul. She remained focus while Soul was fighting to stay awake, he was bored out of his mind and wanted to sleep, he was done with training for the day but Maka being as stubborn as she was kept nagging him to keep trying. It annoyed him slightly that he was taking orders from her so obediently. <p>

"Don't you want to take a break Maka? We've been at this for hours and I know you're trying really hard but it's getting late and we can work on it tomorrow." Soul suggested, letting out a loud yawn as he scratched his stomach. Maka shook her head fiercely. 

"No I'm not going to give up! I will get this right and I will be strong!" Maka exclaimed. 

"Heh, you sound just like my brother." Soul chuckled out. 

"What do you mean?" 

"Wes was never one to give up, if he set his mind to it there was nothing you could do to stop him. He was a hard worker. You remind me of him in that sense." 

Maka heard something crackle between them, it startled her slightly. She opened one eye to stare at Soul in question. 

"What was that?" She asked. 

"What was what?" Soul replied, his eyes were open now and focused on her with a questioning stare. 

Then she felt something. She paused, holding up her hand for Soul to be quiet as she tried to pinpoint the source. 

'_I can't explain it; it's like a warm feeling…'_

Maka focused on that feeling with studious determination, she followed the warmth that was radiating from Soul, she could also feel warmth coming from inside her torso before it felt like it was reaching towards Soul. Her hopes soared in excitement, her smile grew. 

'…_.a connection?'_

Zap. 

"S-Soul, is this…it? The connection?" Maka asked hopefully. He in return gave her a big sharp toothed grin and nodded. 

"Yep. Pretty cool huh?" He responded. Maka squealed.

"Yes! But how do we use this for attacking?" Maka asked, curious as to how the soul mechanics work in battle. Kidd stood up from his spot on the couch.

"Would you like a demonstration Maka? I'm more than happy to oblige." Kidd offered.

"Isn't it getting late to go outside and demonstrate?" Maka asked as she tilted her to look at the clock. It was indeed getting late. Kidd shook his hand dismissively before motioning Liz and Patty to stand by his side. 

"Nonsense I'll show you in here, it won't take too long. Now that you both have connected with your weapons you can now try to achieve a resonance. You can achieve this by increasing your soul wavelength with your partner, you need to match them in soul level. Like so." Kidd stated as closed his eyes in concentration. Liz and Patty followed his movements while all three began to glow slightly. Maka felt as though she could feel their energy combining and getting stronger. 

"Impressive!" Tsubaki exclaimed. 

"Wow amazing!" Maka said excitedly. 

"And now to unleash the attack." Kidd finished as he brought the twin pistols together to focus it away from everyone and directed his aim towards the lounge room wall facing Black Star's backyard. 

"I…can feel it! The power coming from resonating is incredible!" Maka said towards Soul, he smirked and gave her a thumbs up. 

"Noise at 0.03 percent. Preparing to fire in 5…" Liz began counting down. 

"4" 

"3" 

"2" 

"Is he going to-" Maka quickly asked Soul as she realised what was about to happen. 

"Yep." Soul affirmed. 

"1! Ready to fire!" Patty chimed out as Kidd fired the energy beam from the pistols. The raw power from the pistols was nothing like anything Maka had ever witnessed as the beam made its way to the other side of the room…. 

Right through the wall of the lounge room. 

There was a brief collective silence within the room as they comprehended what just happened. Black Star was the first to speak up. 

"Yahoo that was awesome!" He cheered, giving Kidd a thumbs up. 

Liz quickly ordered Kidd to turn away from the hole in the wall before he started another one of his episodes. He listened to her dutifully as Patty's laughter rang in his ears. 

"Ehehe! It went right through the wall! Boom!" Patty giggled out, as if celebrating such a feat. 

"B-but! The wall!" Tsubaki wailed in shock, tears started to well up in her eyes. Black Star pat her back, showing off a big grin. 

"No worries Tsubaki! The great me does not care about walls! I care about learning this resonance thing, let's get training! Tsubaki, transform!" 

"Y-yes." She squeaked out quietly as she transformed, clearly done with worrying for the night as Black Star ran through the hole to train outside. 

"So Soul when we get stronger as a team would we be able to do an attack like that?" 

"Hm it differs for every team no doubt but I guess when we get to know each other and train more you'll get a better grasp on souls and improve more and do an equivalent attack but for a scythe. But your soul feels nice so I know we can do it." 

"Err…thanks." 

"It's cool. But…" Soul's red eyes shifted its focus onto Kidd. "I have a question for you." 

"Shoot." 

"I've been wondering, Liz and Patty aren't exactly the intellectual types so how do you know so much about us and DC?" 

"Being knowledgeable runs in the family." Kidd stated. 

"I see…"

"Indeed, well I think it's time for us to head back to the manor. Good luck with the training! If you need us you know where to find us. Liz, Patty, let's go. Goodbye." 

"Dunno bout you Maka but I'm freaking tired, I'm gonna snooze. Night." Soul farewelled as he made his way towards his sleeping mat. 

"Night Soul." 

* * *

><p>"My Lady Medusa, I'm sorry to report we cannot pin point an exact location in Oklahoma where the kishin had perished. What would you like us to do?" <p>

"My, my, my. I didn't expect any problems yet here we are. I am not going to execute my plans if we don't have accurate readings. But no matter." 

"What are your orders My Lady?" 

"Dispatch several kishin to Oklahoma, order them to search for strong souls and they are bound to find my prey. Send for them now and get out of my sight." 

"Y-yes Lady Medusa!" 

"Useless trash, I swear it's hard to come across efficient minions these days." 

* * *

><p>It had been several days and Maka and Soul kept practicing at Black Star's house. Tsubaki had laid out sleeping mats for them when they over exerted themselves and couldn't make it back to Maka's apartment. Kidd, Liz and Patty did drop over from time to time to supply more training tips which Maka was grateful absorbed with studious discipline. Currently, Maka and Soul were in the back yard again training. <p>

"You feel so light now Soul! It's getting easier to swing and aim properly. This is awesome!" Maka giggled while she sliced another target with precision. 

"Good work Maka, keep it up! Now aim for the target on your right, aim for the head." 

"Yahoo!" Maka cheered. 

"Pfft, you sound like Black Star. Uncool Maka." 

"Oh hush you." She said, sticking her tongue out. Soul felt a smirk creep up on his face. 

"Heh. But we do make a pretty cool team. If we keep this up it won't be long until we can go to DC and check things out. You are improving heaps , however I think it would be a good idea to take training to a new level." 

"Oh? And how would we do that?" Maka asked, immediately intrigued. 

"Sparring with Kidd and Black Star." Soul stated as if it were the obvious. 

"What!?" 

* * *

><p>-x- TBC –x-<p>

A/N: And that's the end of chapter 10! Hope you liked it!

Feel free to review and leave your feedback as it would be greatly appreciated!

See you in the next chapter!

-KC


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Hello everyone. I'm sorry it has been so long. I went on a long hiatus. Thanks to those who are still following, favoriting and leaving me reviews. I really do appreciate it. Hopefully I can continue to interest you! And wow 100+ reviews! THANK YOU

**Also**- Please check out my new story "Patty Cake" and tell me what you think :D

So without further ado….

* * *

><p>Chapter Eleven<p>

* * *

><p>"Soul, please tell me you're joking!" Maka cried, aghast with the idea of fighting friends with weapons. Not including her books of course. However Soul was dismissing her protests with a smirk. Half of his body appearing out of the scythe to waggle a finger in front of her face.<p>

"Hey, hey. You'll need to learn how to fight against kishin and this is the best option because both Kidd and Black Star aren't out to kill you, so it's cool." Soul assured her.

"Black Star might." Maka deadpanned. Soul chuckled in response.

"The great Me can finally get you back for all those Maka-chops that were unjustly dealt!" Black Star called out from behind them as he and the rest of the gang made their way towards Maka and Soul. Maka leveled him with a small frown.

"Now Black Star, you shouldn't seek revenge on a lady." Kidd chastised.

"Pssh! Maka's no lady!" Black Star chortled.

"What did you say?!" Maka fumed but was only met with him sticking out his tongue at her. She raised a fist but Soul lowered her hand to calm her down. She obliged reluctantly, still glaring at Black Star with promises of pain. Soul's eyes flickered to Kidd and jerked his head towards the vacant yard.

"I think for starters Kidd and Brat Star should demonstrate, so Maka can see how it's done." Soul suggested and Kidd was more than happy to oblige with a refined nod. Black Star frowned at him slightly but Soul paid him no heed, sticking his tongue out at Black Star this time, Patty imitating him as well.

"Hmph fine! But Maka-Baka and I fight after this!" Black Star stated.

"Bring it on!" Maka challenged as she pointed at him threateningly. Tsubaki looked between the two seeing the tension in the air and tried to distract Black Star.

"L-let's go Black Star." Tsubaki chimed in softly. She placed her hands on Black Star's shoulder's to steer him into the direction Kidd and the Thompson sisters were waiting for them. As Kidd motioned towards Liz and Patty to transform and got into one of his fighting stances, Black Star's competitive nature kicked in. A wicked grin crossed his features as he too got into position.

"Alright transform Tsubaki! Katana mode!" He ordered.

"Right!" Tsubaki replied and transformed into a beautiful sharp katana. Black Star raised Tsubaki with one of his arms and pointed her directly at Kidd, his other hand pounding against his chest in bravado.

"I'm the Great God and I will beat you Kidd!" He boasted.

"We'll see about that Black Star. I won't go easy on you." Kidd warned with a polite smile as he aimed Liz towards him.

"He sure has a death wish huh?" Liz said with a smirk.

"Hehehe! He doesn't stand a chance!" Patty giggled.

"Yosh!" Black Star shouted as he sprinted towards Kidd. Maka was surprised at how agile Black Star was becoming as he jumped up high and reared Tsubaki over his head with both hands, ready to strike Kidd down with a formidable swing-

-BANG!-

And in an instant, Black Star was knocked back, sprawled face down into the dirt.

There was a brief moment of silence as Black Star remained motionless. Maka looked at Kidd with a mix between shock and awe then cast a worried glance at Black Star. Soul was also surprised at the amount of power Kidd wielded.

"D-did Kidd seriously just shoot Black Star in the chest?" Maka wondered aloud.

"Yes, but the bullets he shot were his wavelength. Sure it will hurt, but an attack like that won't kill humans." Soul summarized.

"Black Star? Are you okay?" Tsubaki asked in concern. Her worried face reflected on the steel of the katana. He turned towards her slowly though his head was still in the dirt.

"Ow." Black Star groaned as he coughed out dirt.

"But how-" Maka was cut off.

"How did you do that!? That was so awesome! Can you teach me!?" Black Star asked in awe. He quickly got up and dusted himself off before plastering a grin on his face. Maka deadpanned at Black Star, stupefied at his ability to forget pain for excitement though she was relieved to see that Black Star did not have visible injuries. Kidd smiled.

"I shot you with my wavelength. I can harness it through Patty and Liz in the form of bullets but it really depends on the weapon…or meister." Kidd explained.

"What do you mean?" Black Star inquired.

"Well some meisters can harness their own wavelength and use it themselves. Like close hand combat. It is better that you fight with your weapon of course, however it's always good to have a back-up strategy. You just need to focus on your wavelength." Kidd instructed. Black Star nodded in understanding.

"Okay I'll try it." Black Star stated. He closed his eyes to try and concentrate his wavelength to his hands.

"Just remember we are still fighting after all!" Came Kidd's sing-song voice, he aimed a kick towards Black Star's head that he just narrowly dodged backwards for. Black Star tumbled then quickly got back up to his feet and gave Kidd an unamused glare.

"You sneaky son of a gun!" Black Star barked as he charged at Kidd again. He swung Tsubaki down towards Kidd's legs to knock him off balance. Kidd however back flipped away just in time. While he was in mid-air he shot a couple of bullets near Black Star's shoulders which Black Star squawked at in surprise. He jumped back as he heard Patty giggle from the pistol in Kidd's right hand.

"Pay attention or you'll go boom!" Patty guffawed.

Black Star grunted as he lunged again to attack with Tsubaki. All the while he was trying to multitask by focusing on his wavelength. Kidd was not making it easy for him to do both but he figured if this was a real battle it would be hard to do at first regardless. Tsubaki was encouraging him with advice and warnings of Kidd's approach as he kept trying.

-Crackle-

There it was. Black Star could start to feel the energy surging through his hand. He felt powerful as he grinned triumphantly. His eyes flickered towards Kidd.

'_It's working! But if I want to do this I have to be quick.'_ Black Star thought quickly, and as Kidd ran towards him he reared his hand back then struck out towards Kidd. Kidd jumped sideways to dodge the powerful attack as it made contact with the ground, leaving quite an impressive dent.

"Yahoo!" Black Star shouted in accomplishment.

"H-he did it!?" Maka stated incredulously.

"Well damn… that was pretty cool." Soul smirked, giving Black Star a thumbs up.

"Great work Black Star!" Tsubaki congratulated.

"That was quite impressive Black Star." Kidd complemented.

"The great Me can do anything I set my mind to! Let's keep going, I want to perfect my godly skills!"

They continued to spar however it eventually ended up with Black Star using Kidd as target practice for his wavelength blast. Tsubaki, Liz and Patty had long gone from their meister's hands. Instead they took residence beside Soul and Maka. Tsubaki silently cheered for Black Star while Liz decided to play with her phone while Patty used one of Soul's thighs as a pillow, asleep almost instantly. Soul was unfazed as he continued to watch the fight.

Maka couldn't help but feel a small pang of jealously as she watched the display. Soul was oblivious until he turned his head and saw her expression. He was puzzled at first until he saw her green eyes drifting towards Patty. He couldn't help but break into a huge smirk.

'_Well, well, well… I never knew she would feel jealous.'_ As much as he wanted to revel in the fact an angry Maka nonetheless was not a good situation. Although he couldn't help find that her expression was adorable.

"Liz and Patty are my childhood friends, they're like sisters to me." Soul quietly answered her unspoken question as he ruffled Maka's hair. She squawked in protest, her face heating up at rapid speed. He knew she was jealous, how embarrassing! Instead she faced away from him with a scoff to notice Black Star and Kidd were done and walking back towards them. Kidd was talking to someone on his cell phone before shutting it with a sigh as he approached.

"I'm afraid we must go now, my father has summoned me. Liz, Patty…wake up! Let us be on our way. Maka and Black Star…Keep practicing but don't kill each other. I shall be back in a few hours. Goodbye." Kidd bid farewell as he ventured towards the front door. Liz followed with Patty clinging to her back who was chanting "piggyback" with a sleepy grin. Liz sighed but obliged to her sister's request.

* * *

><p>"You ready for this Maka?" Soul asked as he transformed back into a scythe. She nodded as she caught him with ease. She could feel their wavelength coinciding with one another which helped boost her confidence.<p>

"Yeah! I'm feeling pretty excited now about this actually." Maka smiled as she readied herself, her forest-green eyes locking onto Black Star's cobalt ones.

"I bet I can take you down with one wavelength punch!" Black Star bragged as he reared his hand back to prepare a strike.

"Black Star don't you dare try to use your wavelength on Maka!" Soul threatened. Black Star deflated as he mumbled "buzzkill" towards Soul.

"Hmpf fine. Tsubaki, chain scythe mode." Black Star pouted as Tsubaki transformed. And without a moment's notice he charged towards Maka.

Maka tightened her grip on the scythe handle as she debated on her next course of action. This was a fight after all but did she really want to swing a scythe at her best friend? Though, by the looks of Black Star he didn't seemed bothered by the idea.

'_I don't want to cut him, I'll just use the handle.'_ Maka settled with that option as she quickly switched Soul in her hands so the handle was facing Black Star. She stabbed it towards him as he lunged but he deflected her attack with ease.

"I hope you don't plan to poke me to death. C'mon Maka you need to use your scythe. I can handle it." Black Star urged. He wasn't trying to make fun of her this time. He genuinely wanted his best friend to improve and become stronger, she would definitely need it for the future. Not that he would dare admit that he cared about her and would worry if she got hurt.

'_Black Star has a point! I need to try harder!' _Maka thought in agreement.

She reared Soul down towards him however she was met with resistance. Black Star holding the chain taut in both hands to prevent her from applying more pressure downwards. He grinned at her in victory as she jumped back to strike again. Maka had to give him credit, Black Star was persistent with his training and it certainly shows. He was constantly blocking her attacks yet she was not deterred, he spurred her confidence to keep attacking. They continued sparring for quite some time.

Maka was getting ready to block one of Black Star's attacks when an ominous feeling stopped her dead. Her eyes wide from the sensation that was invading her thoughts. She felt a pull from somewhere behind them.

'_What was that!?'_ She thought to herself.

"Stop!" Maka called out to Black Star. Soul quirked an eyebrow up at her in question while Black Star smirked. She quickly turned to peer behind them to observe the houses.

"What? Had enough Maka?" Black Star sneered.

"Can't you feel it? Something seems off around here. I can't put my finger on it but I feel like something bad is going to happen." Maka explained.

"I don't feel anything." Black Star stated although he did survey the area for suspicious activity.

"What does it feel like?" Tsubaki questioned. Maka furrowed her eyebrows together as she tried to concentrate.

"It feels…wrong…cold…bad?" Maka explained, unsure of what she was feeling.

There was a loud roar coming from behind a nearby house. The gang watched warily as they readied their weapons. Maka tried to focus on the feeling she had before to try and pinpoint its location. A few moments later they saw a gigantic clawed paw grab the roof of the house before the other paw followed suit. It hoisted itself unto the roof and stood in all its monstrous glory. It reminded Maka of a demonic bear. It raised its mangled snout to sniff the air before its yellow eyes dilated as it focused on the group. It bared its sharp fangs in a twisted smile.

"I found you, fresh meat." It growled. It jumped down from the roof sending tremors through the ground, knocking over anything in the vicinity of its huge body. It lowered itself onto all fours and roared again before it charged towards them, mouth agape and ready to rip anything and everything to shreds.

"I told you I felt something!" Maka shot to Black Star.

"What the!? They can talk?" Black Star exclaimed in surprise.

"And of course it chose to show up when Kidd isn't here! Figures!" Maka complained.

"Who cares? We can take him! C'mon Maka!" Soul encouraged.

"Right!" Maka shouted back as both she and Black Star jumped backwards to avoid the kishin's charge. It hit a couple of trees instead before it turned its body to face them with a snort.

It narrowed its eyes as it focused on Soul and then onto Tsubaki. It reared back on its hind legs before slamming its front paws down onto the ground with a snarl. It was quite the intimidating sight to behold.

"Give me…..the weapons." The kishin growled before it began to charge towards them again.

"Like hell we will!" Black Star shouted with a scoff as he threw Tsubaki's scythe part into the kishin's side. It hissed angrily in challenge and took a deft swing towards him, successfully knocking him into the ground but Black Star got up swiftly to avoid being a sitting duck.

Then it swiftly changed its target to Maka, lashing out another strike.

"Maka look out!" Soul yelled.

Maka was just quick enough to hold Soul out horizontally to defend herself, however she was knocked back into a wall. The impact shot up her spine which was highly unpleasant. She clenched her teeth together and tried to will away the pain. She would have to be stronger than this.

'_I will not cry or be weak!'_ Maka thought with resolve.

"Ouch." Maka was all she allowed herself to say before removing herself from the wall to attack the kishin. Soul asked if she was alright but she merely shrugged off his concern. It prepared another strike before Black Star's loud shout distracted it. Black Star jumped onto the kishin's back and was headed towards its neck with determination.

"Heh, you can't beat a God you puny kishin! Eat this!" Black Star shouted as he shot his wavelength into the back of the kishin's neck. From Maka's point of view it looked like Black Star electrocuted the kishin. He then followed the attack with a slice of the chain scythe in the same spot.

The kishin howled in unbridled fury and pain as it tried to swipe Black Star off its back. Black Star jumped off quickly and regrouped with Maka.

"What's our next course of action?" Maka asked.

"Go for the neck where Black Star punched him! Weaken his injury." Soul ordered.

Black Star and Maka agreed before they ran towards the kishin again. This time the kishin was lashing out at them to deter them from getting closer. Both meisters narrowly dodged its constant riotous strikes. They both lunged on top of the kishin, running towards the injury. Maka was praying that she didn't get knocked off as she prepared to strike, Black Star was right behind her.

"Now!" Black Star yelled as he struck the kishin with another wavelength blast and jumped back. While it was still slightly dazed both Maka and Black Star swung their scythes into the neck. The force behind it was strong enough to decapitate the kishin's head, Maka and Black Star rapidly jumped away from the kishin as its head fell to the ground, the body falling down moments later.

Black Star punched the air in victory as Tsubaki and Soul returned to their human forms. Maka was happy that they defeated it, though she could still see its eyes focused on the group. Faint breathing could be heard as it bared its fangs one last time.

"She shall send more." The kishin gurgled.

"What did you say?" Maka asked. She was surprised it spoke again she almost failed to register what the kishin said before it disintegrated into nothing. Soul and Tsubaki understood though.

"It didn't mean…." Tsubaki trailed off. Soul nodded before confirming her suspicion while he turned to Maka.

"It's Medusa….Call Kidd and tell him what happened."

* * *

><p>"It's a relief you managed to kill the kishin with little injury." Kidd expressed with relief. Once Kidd heard about the incident he rushed back immediately. The group had returned to Black Star's home in his living room while they relayed to Kidd and the sisters what happened.<p>

"I'm glad you guys didn't die!" Patty chimed as she hung over the back of Black Star's couch patting Maka's head as Maka was sitting on the couch in front of her. Maka smiled while she took a sip of her coffee.

"Did it sneak up on you?" Liz asked. Tsubaki shook her head before answering.

"Maka sensed the kishin before it attacked. I'm thinking she might have-" Tsubaki was cut off.

"Soul perception." Kidd answered.

"What's that?" Maka enquired.

"Basically it is the ability to sense any soul nearby, I assume you probably felt it now because you were matching wavelengths with Soul but if you hone your senses you can improve this and do it on your own." Kidd explained.

"I will definitely practice." Maka guaranteed.

"Good. Now we have to consider our next course of action. As Medusa will send more kishin." Kidd forewarned.

"Which means she is trying to locate us." Liz supplied.

"That is if she doesn't already know our exact location." Soul muttered as he took a bite from a sandwich.

"I hope that is not the case, however this is a good incentive to leave to DC." Kidd suggested.

"When do you want to leave?" Black Star questioned. Kidd closed his eyes pensively as he finished his tea before answering.

"We need to prepare and pack accordingly so I think two days will be enough time to gather food and clothes. However pack lightly. Hopefully she won't attack us within that time. Keep an eye out regardless. I think it is time we called it a day, call if you need anything."

Maka peered at Soul and noticed he was still wearing Black Star's loaned attire. That wouldn't do for the mission they plan to embark on. Soul quirked an eyebrow after sensing her gaze on himself.

"Should probably get you some clothes, huh?"

* * *

><p>-x- TBC –x-<p>

A/N: And that's the end of chapter 11! Hope you liked it! I might add a flashback in the next chapter.

Feel free to review and leave your feedback/suggestions as it would be greatly appreciated!

See you in the next chapter!

-KC


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Hello everyone. Thank you for your continued support! And thank you for the kind reviews. Sorry I've left this for so long. Going to have quite a bit of flashback so be prepared!

Also please check out my other story Patty Cake c:

So without further ado….

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Twelve<strong>

* * *

><p>It was the morning after the group had made plans to leave for DC in three days' time. So far the morning had been fairly warm, being that it was the middle month of summer. Tsubaki had finished preparing breakfast and was now onto the task of packing Black Star's clothes.<p>

Lucky for her she had next to nothing to pack. Maka and Liz had lent her a few articles of clothing that she currently wore. She was thankful at their generosity as she had no money herself to purchase items. And she did not want to impose on Black Star…

_'Speaking of…'_ Tsubaki smiled to herself as she tugged on the jacket she also wore that he had lent her. He still had not asked for its return, she was secretly hoping he wouldn't. Black Star's masculine scent still lingered on the jacket; it made her feel at ease. She snapped out of her musings when Black Star walked into the room. He gave her a friendly nod as he sat on the bed not too far from her.

"Just a few days until we leave. Yahoo! Are you ready to go back to Death City?" Black Star grinned as he grabbed the bag Tsubaki was packing and stuffed a few more articles of clothing in it before he zipped it up. She nodded towards him.

"As ready as I'll ever be I guess. I just hope we get to find some of our friends." She said with a small smile as she too sat down on the bed, her hands folded neatly in her lap.

"The godly me will find them, don't you worry about that." He assured as he leaned down on the mattress, his legs hung over the edge as he relaxed.

"So Tsubaki, random question but who was your meister before me?" Black Star asked. His cobalt green eyes sparked in curiosity as they met Tsubaki's indigo orbs. Black Star was intrigued on who he had to measure up to.

"A samurai named Mifune. He was a very strong and dutiful person. One of, if not the best swordsman that Death City had to offer."

"Sounds like a good guy." Black Star stated, though he tried to hide the feeling of jealously that reared its ugly head. He glanced away from her so she didn't see his expression. Had they been in a romantic relationship? He quickly tried to rid himself of that thought.

"Yes, many weapons wanted him to be their meister." "Especially my brother…" Tsubaki trailed off then became silent. He looked back towards her and was shocked to see her normally gentle caring features take on such a heartbroken form. She looked to be on the verge of tears. He sat up straight and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"What happened?" He asked gently.

"Well…" She began.

* * *

><p><strong>Flashback<strong>

Tsubaki watched Mifune's retreating figure as he left the Nakatsukasa household with shock and awe. She was pleasantly surprised that Mifune had chosen her to be his new weapon out of all the candidates that wanted his partnership. Becoming Mifune's weapon was a huge honour and she silently vowed she would do her best to live up to the renowned status. Her father and mother were extremely thrilled and had left the main room to prepare a celebratory dinner. The moment they left the room however, her brother, Masamune, stood in front of her with a venomous gaze. Her brief moment of happiness destroyed.

"How could he possibly choose you over me? You are weak and pathetic! But you always seem to get everything handed to you, don't you? You inherited the family lineage to change into multiple weapons that was rightfully endowed to me! All I got was the uncanny sword form!" He seethed.

Tsubaki remained silent, her eyes downturned to the floor. She knew how upset and angry he was and knew trying to reason with him would only anger him further. He brought up their weapon lineage often throughout the years, his jealously knew no bounds. Since he was the eldest he rightfully should have obtained their lineage but for an unknown reason she acquired it instead. Her indigo eyes flickered up to his again; a sad expression marred her features. His glare worsened.

"Don't you dare look down on me!" Masamune hissed as he clenched his fists. He hated when she looked at him like that, like he was inferior and she needed to pity him. He resisted the urge to hit her.

"I-I'm not." She cried. He gripped her forearms tightly as he began to shake her. Tears welled up in her eyes as she tried to struggle out of his firm grasp.

"Enough with your lies. I am sick of you, this family and Death City. You are all worthless. I am leaving this place." Masamune snarled as he threw her to the ground.

"No! Wait Masamune!" Tsubaki cried out in alarm as she saw him dash out of the front entrance, disappearing into the street before she alerted their parents.

After Masamune left there were many search parties that went to look for him. Tsubaki also tried to look for him in DC but it was clear he had left the city without a trace. Many people speculated that he met an unfortunate end and was never to return.

That was until the night when the witches attacked.

Mifune and Tsubaki had been fighting for quite some time against the witches and kishin. They had been separated from the others and have had to fend for themselves as there were no more reinforcements. She was grateful that Mifune was her partner, he was extremely strong. If she had been with someone else the technician would not be able to withstand such an onslaught. Though from what she has witnessed today a lot of people have not been able to.

They had just finished killing a kishin when a voice cut through the air.

"Well if it isn't my little sister." A familiar voice cooed with malice. Mifune looked up to a nearby roof where the voice came from. Tsubaki's bewildered face reflected through the katana towards the sound. The male looked nothing like him except for the eyes, the rest of his body was covered in black markings. The person was possessed by none other than…

"Brother!?" Tsubaki gasped out the same time Mifune spoke.

"Masamune!? You traitor! You're with the witches!?"Mifune accused.

"It is fairly obvious that I am." Masamune stated as he crossed his arms.

Tsubaki stared at Masamune in horror, possessing a human was forbidden in their clan, as weapons that do so end up consuming the technician. She felt like throwing up at the thought of what he had done.

"You're walking a dangerous path Masamune." Mifune warned as he took up a defensive battle stance.

"Oh? You look down on me too Mifune? No matter. I have chosen my own path…" Masamune laughed darkly as he pointed his sword at Mifune. "...and it shall be covered in your blood!" He cackled again as he jumped off the roof towards them. Masamune lunged forward repeatedly as Mifune parried each blow.

"Brother stop this! Please come back to us!" Tsubaki pleaded. Her cries fell on deaf ears as Masamune kept attacking. Mifune grunted as he blocked another attack as he responded to Tsubaki.

"He won't listen to you Tsubaki. Look at what he's done, he possessed then consumed that person. You know the punishment for such an act." Mifune stated gravely.

"B-but…He's my brother..." Tsubaki tried to reason with him. She knew deep down there was no possible way she would harm her brother intentionally, even though he despised her she still loved him. "Can't we change him back!?" She pleaded, the desperation in her tone making her voice crack.

Mifune glanced down to her reflection; she looked distraught, tears streaking down her face. He couldn't bring himself to tell her the truth. His attention snapped back to Masamune with a glare as he placed Tsubaki on the ground then drew out a normal samurai sword from the weapon cache he also carried. Tsubaki transformed back to a human and looked at Mifune in question. He stood in front of her protectively and called out over his shoulder.

"You must flee to the laboratory. I'll use my other swords to defend. Do not look back, just keep running. Go!" Mifune ordered as he gave her a firm shove as Masamune tried to attack again. Tsubaki hesitated for only a second before she fled. Masamune gave a sideways look towards her retreating figure with a crazed grin.

"Ah little sister, where are you going?" Masamune cooed in a sickly sweet voice. He made to take a step in the direction she went but Mifune blocked his path.

"Don't take your eyes off me Masamune!" Mifune shouted as he swung his sword. The sound of metal against metal resounded loudly as it rang throughout the night, as well as screams.

Tsubaki kept running.

**End Flashback**

* * *

><p>"T-that was the last time I saw Mifune or my brother." Tsubaki finished, her voice was raspy and he could tell she was fighting back tears. Black Star gave her a rough pat on the back before he sprung up and faced her with a determined grin.<p>

"Don't worry Tsubaki. We'll find them! And when I find that brother of yours I'm going to knock some sense into him for worrying my godly weapon." Black Star promised. He curled one of his hands and punched it into the other for emphasis. Tsubaki gave him a small smile, touched he tried to cheer her up.

"Thanks Black Star."

* * *

><p>"Liz, you cannot bring all that makeup, it's not essential for battle!" Kidd exclaimed as he noticed her bag crammed full of hair and skin products. Curious, he picked up a green bottle for further inspection before Liz snatched the bottle from him.<p>

"It's essential for me!" Liz huffed at him but she did return most of the cosmetics back into her drawer. She levelled him with a frown before continuing. "And besides…" She pointed to his bag, not surprised at all to find he had packed it symmetrically. "Why do you need to pack so many ties? Hm?" Liz asked as she placed her hands on her hips.

"It's essential for me." Kidd mocked back, an amused glint in his golden eyes as he turned to inspect Patty's luggage. Though he quickly glanced back at Liz to make sure she did not try anything funny with his bag. He saw her hand was hovering dangerously over it like he predicted; she noticed his stare and stuck her tongue out at him as she returned to packing her bag.

"Eh? Mr Pickles can't fit!" Patty whined as she tried to fit her oversized giraffe plush into the bag. Liz watched as Kidd tried to reason with Patty as she threatened the toy by breaking its neck if it did not comply before bursting into childish laughter.

Liz found herself smiling at the display. It had been just over a year that the Thompson sisters lived with Kidd, she was happy to see her sister so carefree now. Patty might have looked jolly on the streets of Brooklyn but there was always a hint of crazed madness. Liz hoped she never saw that expression on her sister again.

_'And to think that was all thanks to Kidd…'_

* * *

><p><strong>Flashback<strong>

"Curse that asymmetrical DWMA store." Kidd muttered to himself as he returned to Gallow's Mansion with the twin pistols. How dare the shopkeeper ban him from ever returning! If anything Kidd was doing him a favour trying to organize his store. It seemed no one appreciated symmetry as much as he did. Such a cruel world.

When he entered his home, Kidd surveyed his luxurious and symmetrical decor with awe as he felt calm again. His footsteps echoed against the tiled floor as he walked towards his study. The house was empty aside from him; his father was always at work and barely came home. Which was fine with him, his father had the tendency to not heed his symmetry obsession which irked Kidd greatly. It also did not help when his father pointed out the three white stripes that adorned his ink hair. His father might think it's 'cute' but that was Kidd's biggest insecurity.

After he arrived in his study he withdrew the guns from the shopping bag to inspect them thoroughly. He was surprised that they were so lightweight in his hands; he inspected the empty magazines and wondered what type of ammo they would have used. The surface of the pistols were silver and polished, not a spec of dirt marred them, so perfect. The only thing wrong was the gaudy scrolls plastered around the handles. He glared daggers at them.

"What is this asymmetrical garbage? Away with you, ugly scrolls." Kidd hissed as he started to remove the scrolls on one of the guns. He just removed the last scroll for the first gun when he felt a strange vibe emanating from it; he dropped both guns and took a cautious step back.

A pink glow lit up the gun and began to rattle against the ground before the light shot up. Kidd's whole body remained frozen in awe at the display as the light was forming into a human shape. It was kneeling down to pick up the other weapon before the pink light faded to reveal a tall, dirty blond haired woman. Before he had time to register any further details about her appearance she had tackled him against a wall with the other gun pressed firmly against his neck. His golden orbs stared up into her dark blue eyes in surprise.

"Well look who we have here, a prissy rich kid." The young woman stated with a sneer as she gave him a once over and noticed his expensive tailored suit. Now over his surprise, Kidd observed her calmly. The clothes were dirty and tattered. She wore low riding black jeans with a grey tank top, the jacket had faux fur lining at the top but she wore it halfway so it gathered near her elbows.

_'What strange attire for a young lady.'_ Kidd thought to himself. _'But more importantly…'_

"What on earth is going on?" Kidd asked aloud.

"Are you one of Medusa's lackeys?" She hissed, ignoring his question. While she still had him pinned to the wall with her body, her free hand started to remove the scrolls from the gun she held in her hand, all the while she still glared down at him in scrutiny. Kidd sighed as he tried to raise his arms in an apologetic manner before speaking.

"You must have me mistaken with someone else. I have no knowledge of someone named Medusa. And I am no one's lackey. I purchased you in a weapon specialty store. Now could you please move back? This isn't very comfortable." Kidd asked politely. Her grip loosened as she regarded him warily.

"You better not be lying." She warned before she stepped back completely, much to Kidd's relief as he brushed imaginary dirt off his suit.

She ripped off the last scroll from the gun in her hand before throwing it behind her. The gun began to glow pink before it too revealed a girl. She was shorter than the previous girl, her light blond hair barely reached her shoulders. She wore a similar outfit to the other girl sans the jacket. They both took a defensive stance in front of him. From the similar looks of them, he assumed that they were siblings.

"Ehehehe! Try anything funny and we're gonna beat ya up! Right Liz!?" The shorter girl giggled however her laugh held an edge to it. He noticed she had a drawl to her accent. Her eyes seemed wild as they darted around the room; she reminded him of a wild cat, one he had no intention of riling up.

As Kidd observed both of them side by side, it became glaringly obvious that something was wrong; Kidd frowned before he began to speak, a pointed a finger at them in accusation.

"You're not symmetrical anymore!? Go back to being weapons!" Kidd ordered. If they were twin guns they should have been twin and identical! Liz crossed her arms and glared at him.

"Are you freaking serious? We've been in our weapon modes for so long, like hell I want to go back to that so soon!" Liz remarked as she stretched. The short girl beside her nodded in agreement. Kidd was about to tell them just how serious he was until he thought about their situation, he raised his hands again in a non-threatening manner.

"Ah yes, my apologies. How about an introduction then? I am Death the Kidd but please, just call me Kidd." Kid supplied with a slight bow. He could tell by their expressions they found his name odd, but he was accustomed to that reaction. Liz gave him a wary glance before she finally decided to comply.

"I'm Liz and this is my little sister Patty." Liz stated as she jerked her thumb to herself then her sister.

"Hi!" Patty chirped with a wave. Kidd noticed she did not look as tense as she was moments ago much to his relief as he returned his attention back to Liz.

"Nice to meet you, now I'm quite curious about this whole situation, would you mind explaining this to me?" Kidd asked politely, he went to sit at his desk and motioned the sisters to sit down as well. They followed his prompt and sat down. Liz stared at him for a brief moment before she nodded at him, and made herself comfortable against the leather chair before she began to speak.

"Alright, as you've noticed Patty and I are humans but also weapons…"

* * *

><p>After Liz's explanation Kidd was undeniably intrigued about not only the sisters, but DC and everything related to the topic. He absorbed all the information Liz had provided with great gusto but could not help wanting to know more. Such a place existed yet how was it kept secret for so long? Was it destroyed? He asked her for further details however she admitted that she and her sister were not the most knowledgeable people to explain everything so he planned to do thorough research about it later. That is, if he could find such documents.<p>

Being the gentleman that he was, Kidd offered Liz and Patty a shared guest bedroom to stay in and promised them he would help supply whatever they needed. Liz asked for clothes while Patty asked for more food as she had quite the healthy appetite. He went over the house rules to make sure they did not mess with his symmetry and nearly freaked out when Patty kept poking an expensive vase. It seemed she found everything amusing.

The day after he took them shopping for new attire, as he could not stand to see such dishevelled clothes any longer. The sisters had bought matching outfits like he asked, though they were not exact replicas of each other to his disdain. Liz told him this was the best they could do and he would just have to accept it for now.

It was well into the fourth day since Liz and Patty had stayed in his home and Kidd began to grow fond of the sisters' company. Liz had still been wary of him until he bought her the makeup that she requested; it surprised him that past the tough bravado act she had at the beginning, Liz was quite girly. Kidd also offered Patty a tube of lipstick and watched in amusement when she twisted it as far as it could go, and then proceeded to use it as a crayon. Red lipstick smeared against the page of her new coloring book while she hummed happily.

Kidd was in the process of serving tea when Liz bolted off her chair with a panicked yet angry expression. Patty stopped her drawing as she stared intently at her sister. He was about to ask what was wrong before Liz spoke her concern.

"A kishin is coming! Patty transform!" She hissed as she gestured towards her sister. Patty chirped an 'okay' as pink light engulfed her, transforming her into a weapon once more. Liz held onto the pistol tightly, surveying their surroundings, trying to trace any sound of movement. Kidd followed suit.

There was no denying that Kidd could hear something scurrying outside. It sounded like metal scraping against the manor's walls, and it was approaching them quite rapidly. Moments later he saw what he thought was a whip crack towards the window, shattering the glass into pieces as a black creature jumped inside. In Kidd's opinion it looked like an oversized lizard, but with demonic features and red eyes.

"So that's a kishin." Kidd wondered aloud as he narrowed his eyes towards the creature. He was surprised with himself that yes, there was a monster in his home that will attack them, but he did not fear it in the way a normal person would react. In fact he was more than ready to help fight as he took up a fighting stance. Liz held up a hand in front of him, her expression deadly serious.

"Get back Kidd." Liz warned as she quickly dodged away from its claws and proceeded to shoot at it. Patty called out from the pistol in warning of the next attack which Liz heeded and shot it in the arm.

"Don't worry about me Liz, I know how to fight." Kidd replied as he tried to avoid the kishin's quick attacks. Just like a normal lizard it kept moving, its lithe form making it difficult for Kidd to land a hit on it. That did not deter him however.

"Patty! Your turn!" Liz called as she jumped in the air and within moments had reverted back into a pistol, Patty caught her with ease, now in her human form. She spun the pistol briefly in her hand before she aimed.

"Die damn you!" Patty yelled, her eyes bore hints of madness while she shot at the kishin with a feral grin. Unlike her sister Kidd noticed her aim and shooting were more wild and sporadic. Several moments later Liz ordered them to switch roles again.

Liz and Patty had an interesting way of fighting, as they tried to manoeuvre around the kishin it appeared like they were playing a game of extreme hot potato, but with guns, as they dodged, transformed and fired at the kishin. It was a well-rehearsed technique. Kidd watched them in his peripheral vision while he aimed kicks and punches to the kishin's head, much to its annoyance. Although Kidd had been trained in various martial arts it seemed his attacks were futile. The kishin snarled.

"Patty look out!" Liz yelled from the pistol.

"Eh?!-" Patty said as she turned to see the kishin coming right towards her, its arm reared up ready to strike. She closed her eyes and braced for the attack, not looking forward to the pain. Before she could register anything further she was knocked onto the ground from her left. She quickly opened her eyes and was shocked to see Kidd was crouching over her. The kishin managed to whip its tail against Kidd's arm with a crack, tearing through his suit to slice his pale flesh, his golden eyes narrowed from the pain but he refused to show any other signs of discomfort.

"Kidd!?"Both Patty and Liz chorused in alarm. Kidd gave them a small smile and then a grunt when he pulled Patty up hastily on her feet. Liz didn't miss a beat as she transformed back to a human, she held out her hand towards her sister. They needed to kill this thing now before matters get worse.

"Patty transform!" Liz ordered, Patty transforming once more.

Liz caught Patty with ease as she jumped over the kishin's tail. Within another jump she made it to the kishin's face, with no time to waste she pressed the gun straight into its torso. She narrowed her eyes in disgust towards the snarling kishin.

"Go to hell." Liz hissed as she pulled the trigger. The pink bullet seemed to explode as soon as it entered the kishin then ripped it to shreds. The body vanished moments later, only to reveal a floating red ball, its soul. Kidd stared in wonder as Liz motioned for Patty to take the kishin egg; she complied and absorbed it into her body. Kidd was fascinated with the process. Patty gave a victory fist pump while her older sister approached Kidd with a look of concern.

"Hey Kidd are you okay?" Liz asked as she lifted his injured arm to examine the damage. It was still bleeding; staining his outfit, the skin around the wound was red and raw.

"It's merely a scrape." Kidd assured. Honestly he was more concerned that the kishin ruined his suit and was bordering on another OCD episode. Liz ignored this however as she dragged him towards the nearest bathroom to tend to the wound. Patty followed closely behind them shaking a fist at Kidd.

"Ya better not die Kiddo!" Patty threatened.

Kidd scoffed at her as Liz gestured for him to sit on the closed toilet as she opened the medicine cabinet and pulled out the supplies she needed then began to tend to his wound. He let out a low hiss of pain as he felt the antiseptic touched his wound, Liz glanced up at him briefly in concern before resuming her work.

"I must say," He waited for the pain to dull before speaking again, recalling the events that had transpired not so long ago, "You two make quite the formidable pair." Kidd finished. Liz smirked and flipped her hair back over her shoulder before she grabbed a bandage.

"Damn right we do. We're the Devils of Brooklyn! Although we're pretty awesome now, we would be way more powerful with a meister." Liz said casually as she finished securing the bandage. He nodded politely towards her in gratitude, it was nice having someone care for him. Sure they seemed tough and intimidating at their first meeting but he could tell that the Thompson sisters were more than what they first appear.

Kidd regarded them thoughtfully, recalling what Liz had explained to him about weapon-meister partnerships, before he spoke.

"Then may I be your meister?"

Both Liz and Patty's eyes brightened as they peered at Kidd curiously, as if trying to gauge if he was serious or not. He was very serious, this was like a once in a lifetime opportunity.

"Are you sure you want to? It will be dangerous. The kishin will probably keep trying to find us." Liz warned.

"I'm willing to accept the challenge." Kidd smiled.

"I guess we can give it a shot. What do you think Patty?" Liz asked.

"Kiddo's gonna be our buddy!" Patty squealed as she flung her hands up in the air in celebration.

"Then it is settled." Kidd stated.

"Yay!" Patty cheered. Kidd gave them a brief smile before his features turned serious. Liz raised an eyebrow at his sudden mood change as he began to speak.

"But there is still an issue….this room's symmetry, and my suit is ruined! I'm a failure!" Kidd wailed as he crouched down onto the floor in a defeated lump as he hit the tiles repeatedly with his uninjured hand. Just like a child throwing a tantrum. Liz rolled her eyes at the display as she crouched beside him.

"This better not be a habit of yours. C'mon, cheer up already!" Liz sighed exasperatedly as she half-heartedly rubbed his back to try and soothe him. Patty on the other hand kept laughing while pointing at him, she thought it was hysterical.

"Ehehe! Kiddo is so funny!"

**End Flashback**

* * *

><p>"Found anything yet Soul?" Maka asked as she walked beside him in the clothing store. They had been at the mall for an hour, perusing different clothing stores. She discovered after the third store that Soul was quite meticulous with his choice of clothing; she assumed he wanted to find clothes that could match up to his 'coolness.'<p>

Soul shook his head with a sigh in response as he placed another shirt he didn't want back on the rack. "Not yet, let's try the next store." He suggested.

The next store they entered seemed to mainly focus on street wear; upbeat techno fusion music was played over the speakers as they went on their clothes search. She nodded her head to the beat; she admitted to Soul she loved techno fusion as they browsed. Soul gave her a look of disbelief and amusement at her music tastes and joked she was musically challenged as he finally picked up a few pieces of clothing with interest.

"You're going to try on those?" She asked.

"Might as well go into battle looking cool. Wait here." Soul said with a smirk as he proceeded into the changing booth, she waited outside of it.

Maka snorted as she tried to hide a grin, such a typical response from Soul wanting to be cool. It was not long until he re-emerged from the booth donning the new attire. She eyed the new outfit appreciatively. She had to hand it to him, he had good taste.

"So how do I look? Pretty awesome right?" Soul said with utmost smugness as he leaned against the wall. He now wore dark brown pants with an orange t-shirt with a black leather jacket.

There was no denying that Soul had a rough, boyish charm about him. The outfit suited him perfectly as he gave her a slow turn for further inspection. She must have observed him for too long as she noticed his grin grew wide, he gave her an exaggerated wink. Maka mentally berated herself as she fought down her blush to no avail, she could tell by the mirror behind Soul showed her cheeks burning beet red. She mentally cursed when he noticed.

"Red is a nice color on you Maka." He stated with a shark-tooth smirk. Busted.

Maka glared at him with unspoken promises of Maka-chops, though sadly she had no books. Instead she crossed her arms and looked away, suddenly finding a nearby shelf of socks to be the most fascinating piece of clothing in existence before she spoke again, trying to change the subject.

"It's a nice outfit. All you need now is a motorbike and you'd be set for cruising." Maka stated, though she still averted her gaze as he returned to the booth to change.

"Heh. Well I used to own one. My poor baby is probably rusting in DC somewhere. If we manage to find it you can go for a ride with me." Soul offered over the sound of rustling fabric.

Maka glared at the booth in disdain, obviously against the idea. "No way am I getting on a motorbike, they're a death trap."

"Considering we're about to head into a place that will probably have kishin and witches lurking about, riding a motorcycle is safe in comparison." He said as he returned out of the booth, the clothes they were going to purchase for him tucked neatly in one of his arms.

"Smartass." Maka huffed.

Soul merely chuckled at her in response as he stuffed his free hand in his pants pocket. He was well accustomed to their name calling, it was amusing. Though calling her flat chested was off limits, he quickly learnt that the hard way as he received numerous Maka-chops.

"So what about you? Are you going to buy anything?" He asked, noticing her hands were empty of any articles of clothing. She shrugged.

"I doubt I would need anything." Maka stated simply. Soul paused mid-step to give a critical stare of what she was wearing. As his eyes quickly swept over her body, she fought the urge to shy away. It felt like he was checking her out.

"You're going to fight in a tank top and shorts? This isn't a RPG game where the less you wear the more protection you have!" He stated matter-of-factly.

Maka crossed her arms. "Won't it be hot there though?"

"It can be during the day but the nights can get quite cold. Hmm…C'mere." Soul stated as he grasped her hand and led her towards the female jacket section. Maka noticed his hand was huge compared to hers; his skin rough from years of training and hard work. He didn't seem fazed holding her hand while he led her, she however was torn between being embarrassed and ecstatic but she didn't want him to let go. Her mind was buzzing. What do I do? Is he doing it absentmindedly? What was he thinking? Curse his aloofness!

His eyes quickly darted over the various jackets before his hand finally retrieved a black leather trench coat, he gestured for her to try it on. The style of jacket was not something she would normally wear but she decided to humour Soul and wear it. The leather was cool and smooth against her skin, it felt extremely comfortable. She made a small pivot on the spot and was amused when the bottom of the jacket flared out and spun with her.

Soul nodded in approval. "That looks pretty cool on you Maka." He grinned as they made their way to the cashier to pay.

On their walk home Soul commented that since they both have leather jackets, that instantly made them a cool and badass team. And as a token of gratitude for buying him clothes he offered to cook them dinner that night, since Maka had been the one to cook since he had shown up. Her expression was very skeptical to say the least, he rolled his eyes at her response. In the end she agreed, though she made him promise not to burn the house down.

* * *

><p>"I am honestly surprised you know how to cook. I pegged you for a takeout guy." Maka commented as she was halfway through the chicken carbonara that Soul had prepared. They were eating dinner on the couch, both tired from walking around all day.<p>

He scoffed at her comment. "You have such little faith in me." Soul huffed as he faked offense but his smirk was quick to return. She rolled her eyes and lightly nudged him in the ribs with her elbow; he ruffled up her hair in retaliation much to her disdain.

"Hey! I meant it as a compliment." She retorted as she took another bite.

"You can do better." He teased.

Maka inhaled calmly, voiding herself from any facial expression as she turned to face him. "Soul you are the greatest chef that ever existed." She deadpanned.

He laughed at her monotone bluntness. "That's more like it." They fell into companionable silence as they finished their meal and were now watching a show about myths.

"So did you tell your creepy dad where you're going?" Soul asked casually. Maka made a disgusted face at the mention of her father and shook her head.

"Nope, he'd lose it. Probably thinks I'd wind up dead or something." Maka finished with a chuckle. She glanced up at Soul and judging by his scowl, he did not appreciate the joke. Maka shrunk back further into the couch wanting to hide from his serious expression. To her dismay he moved closer, he reached over to lift her chin up, her emerald eyes were caught up in his ruby orbs. She willed herself not to blush at their close proximity but he was making it very hard. Soul took a breath, as if to try and calm himself before he spoke to her again.

"Don't joke about that. Maka, I know I've already warned you of the possible danger we're going to get into and I know you're still going to go but I want you to know… I will do my best to protect you. As your weapon, I will protect you with my life." He promised.

It was so strange for her to hear such serious words from Soul, not to mention the intense stare he had levelled her with.

"Okay, okay. I wasn't being serious." Maka soothed, trying to dissuade his serious expression, he noticed her change of tone and relaxed back into the couch though he still regarded her with concern.

"I am though. I failed not being able to protect my brother, but I'm sure as hell not gonna fail you Maka." He vowed, but there was an edge to his voice. Maka understood now why he took it so seriously. She wondered if he blamed himself over Wes.

Maka gently placed a hand on his shoulder with a soft smile. "I know you won't fail me Soul, I trust you." She said honestly. Soul looked surprised to hear that admission from her but he smiled warmly at her before he resumed watching TV. Unbeknownst to Soul, Maka also silently vowed to him with fierce determination.

_'I will protect you too Soul.'_

* * *

><p>-x- TBC –x-<p>

A/N: And that's the end of chapter 12! Hope you liked some back story (though I guess they were very long)! Thought you might like my version of their beginnings! And I wanted to make this chapter longer to make up for my absence. Feel free to review and leave your feedback/suggestions as it would be greatly appreciated! I really need to redo the previous chapters! I've gotten rusty!

See you in the next chapter!

-KC


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